Comfort Care for Acute and Chronically Ill Patients Training

Learning Outcomes

• Apply principles of holistic comfort care to assess and address physical and psychological needs of acute and chronically ill patients.
• Demonstrate effective communication techniques to support patients and their significant others during illness and treatment.
• Implement pain management strategies and non-pharmacological interventions to alleviate discomfort.
• Evaluate the impact of chronic illness on patients' mental health and apply appropriate psychological support measures.
• Design individualized comfort care plans that incorporate cultural sensitivity and patient preferences.
• Analyze the role of the healthcare team in providing comprehensive comfort care and collaborate effectively.

Target Audience

This course is designed for nurses, caregivers, and healthcare support staff working in hospitals, clinics, hospices, and home-based care settings who interact with acute or chronically ill patients.

Prerequisites

None — open enrollment

Course Outline

Practicals

Overview

Practicals provide hands-on experience in pain assessment, wound care, syringe driver use, and communication skills. Learners practice clinical procedures under supervision to integrate theoretical knowledge into safe, compassionate care.

Practical Activities

• Pain Assessment and Non-Pharmacological Interventions — Learners practice using pain assessment tools (NRS, PAINAD, FLACC) on simulated patients and apply non-pharmacological techniques such as positioning, relaxation, and heat/cold therapy. (6h)
• Wound Care and Dressing Techniques — Learners perform wound assessment and apply various dressings on simulated wounds, including pressure injuries and malignant wounds, focusing on odour control and pain management. (6h)
• Syringe Driver Setup and Troubleshooting — Learners assemble, program, and operate a syringe driver (e.g., Graseby or CADD) using simulated medications. They troubleshoot common alarms and errors. (4h)
• Communication Skills: Breaking Bad News and Advance Care Planning — Learners role-play breaking bad news using the SPIKES protocol and facilitate an advance care planning discussion with a simulated patient and family. (4h)
• Comprehensive Comfort Care Simulation — In teams, learners manage a simulated patient with complex symptoms (pain, dyspnoea, delirium) requiring integrated comfort care. They prioritise interventions, communicate with the team, and document care. (4h)

Summatives

Each delegate is assessed continuously throughout the course via daily exercises, scored practical assignments, and a final summative test at the end.

Practical Assignments — 30%

Practical assignments are observed and scored against a rubric during the practical sessions. Each delegate's practical mark is averaged into a single 100% score and contributes 30% to the final total.

Daily Exercises — 20%

Every training day ends with a multiple-choice exercise scored out of 100%. The scores from each daily exercise are averaged across the duration of the course to produce a Daily Average mark, which contributes 20% to the final total.

Final Test — 50%

On the last day a final summative test is written. It is a multiple-choice paper with multiple-answer questions: each question may have more than one correct option, and a single wrong selection on a question marks the entire question wrong — no partial credit. The final test is scored out of 100% and contributes 50% to the overall mark.

Final Total

Component	Out of	Weight
Practical Assignments (rubric-scored)	100%	30%
Daily Average (multiple choice)	100%	20%
Final Test (multi-answer multiple choice)	100%	50%
Final Total	—	100%

All marks are recorded on the AATICD LMS and visible to each learner under their account.

Certificate

How it works

• Certificates are auto-generated on the AATICD LMS as soon as the marks pass the 50% threshold.
• Each certificate is a branded PDF with the delegate's name, the course title, the unit standard ID, NQF level, credits, and the date of issue.
• You can download or print your certificate from your LMS dashboard at any time after issue — there's no reissue fee and no expiry date.
• If you scored under 50% you can sit the final test again at the next scheduled session at no extra cost.

Where to find it

Sign in to the LMS, open your dashboard, and your certificates appear under My Certificates. Each entry has a View / Download button and a print option.

Training Discounts

Group discounts apply automatically — the more delegates you enrol, the greater the saving. Discounts are calculated at 3% per 5 delegates, scaling up to 40% off for 100+ delegates.

Delegates	Discount
5	3% off
10	6% off
15	9% off
20	12% off
25	15% off
30	18% off
50	30% off
75	35% off
100	40% off

3% discount per 5 delegates, up to 40% off for 100+ delegates. Contact us for a custom group quote.