Louise McMahon Ahearn Endowed Professor Karen Bullock created the course in collaboration with the Center for Digital Innovation in Learning at BC. Photo by Caitlin Cunningham for BC Photography.
Boston College School of Social Work has expanded its global academic offerings to include a virtual training course in palliative care.
The course is the second online global program offered through BCSSW, following the Interdisciplinary Certificate in Humanitarian Assistance. Together, the programs reflect the School’s growing commitment to practice-driven education that enables professionals to stay in their local communities while gaining specialized expertise.
“Global Interprofessional Palliative Care,” developed in partnership with Sparsh Hospice and Palliative Care Center in Hyderabad, India, anchors a yearlong fellowship program designed to strengthen the palliative care workforce in a region with limited access to specialized training.
Organizers say the course responds to a gap in global training infrastructure. While hospice and palliative care have become increasingly professionalized in the United States—complete with certification pathways for social workers, nurses, physicians, chaplains, and pharmacists—many regions worldwide lack comparable opportunities.
“In the United States, we have made strides in professionalizing the advanced practice of hospice and palliative care over the past 25 years,” said Louise McMahon Ahearn Endowed Professor Karen Bullock, who created the course in collaboration with the Center for Digital Innovation in Learning at BC. “Globally, however, many regions that need palliative care training most have limited access to certification programs, and meeting this demand was the driving force behind creating this course as part of a year-long program.”
“Global Interprofessional Palliative Care” builds on an interprofessional palliative care model previously developed at BCSSW, with foundational work led by Associate Professor Christina Matz. CDIL helped adapt the curriculum for synchronous online delivery through Canvas, one of the University’s learning platforms.
Running from January 20 to May 15, the course serves professionals in India across social work, nursing, medicine, theology, and ministry.
In the first semester, assignments combine lectures, readings, case studies, experiential learning, and structured reflection—an instructional model Bullock traces back to national palliative care training initiatives launched in the early 2000s.
“ This partnership embodies what it means to walk alongside others, sharing their hopes and aspirations to further professionalize the palliative care workforce in global contexts and fostering inclusive and supportive relationships. ”
The second semester of the program builds on this foundation through deeper experiential learning, mentored clinical immersion, and completion of capstone projects focused on improving the delivery of hospice and palliative care within trainees’ own practice settings. Throughout the year, fellows continue working clinically, applying theoretical knowledge to real-world situations.
Bullock says the course structure enables learners to continually refine their clinical reasoning, cultural responsiveness, and ethical decision-making, with a focus on addressing unequal access to care, inconsistent quality of care, and poor health outcomes for patients and caregivers.
“The learning is iterative in ways that foster the development of practice behaviors being taught, the integration of knowledge, and professional growth in culturally responsive environments,” says Bullock, who has worked to advance palliative and end-of-life care decision-making for the past two decades. “This is a best practice recommended for cross-cultural teaching and learning of palliative care curricula, based on decades of my own social work practice and leadership development.”
The course reflects BCSSW’s commitment to accompaniment, the practice of walking alongside others in their journeys of growth, healing, or professional development. Bullock worked with Sparsh leadership to develop the curriculum to ensure cultural relevance, feasibility, and sustainability, with the hospice overseeing trainee selection and supervising experiential learning.
“This partnership embodies what it means to walk alongside others, sharing their hopes and aspirations to further professionalize the palliative care workforce in global contexts and fostering inclusive and supportive relationships,” says Bullock. “In doing so, we were able to make advanced modules accessible and relevant and ensure consistent skill development and competencies cross-culturally, with the hope of expanding the training program into other global areas in the future.”
This is the first year of a three-year pilot program, giving students in India the opportunity to complete the fellowship while working in local palliative care settings. Bullock plans to evaluate the program using defined measures like course participation, skill acquisition, and career progression, making adjustments when necessary.
She says the long-term goal of the program is to equip global professionals to improve palliative care where it’s needed most, “advancing awareness, skills, and transferable knowledge for a higher level of professionalization that is competency-based, actionable, observable, and measurable.”