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The delivery of home-setting palliative care and support for cancer patients in the public health care system is part of the 10-year National Plan of Cancer Control in Korea, which was launched in 1996. To facilitate the delivery of palliative care at the public health center, an educational program was developed and implemented in 2001. This collaborative project was organized by the Ministry of Health, the National Cancer Center, and Sungkyunkwan University. This paper will discuss the development, implementation, and the limitations of the educational program. It will also assess future prospects for the program. The targer group of our educational program includes doctors, nurses and other public health professionals who are working at the public health center and responsible for the delivery and the coordination of home-setting palliative care for cancer patients. To make a systematic and comprehensive approach in developing the educational program, we organized our work around a theoretical planning model known as the PRECEDE-PROCEED model. We established our priorities and objectives for each phase of the model. In addition, we selected our educational objectives and based on an application of adult learning theory. We developed two kinds of one-week educational programs for palliative care: one was designed for doctors and the other for other health professionals, including nurses. Participation in the program is voluntray, and last year 88 participants attended the educational program from all over the country. We will organize up to four workshops of our educational program this coming year. Currently, we are making efforts to improve the educational program to make it more appropriate for cancer control in Korea. In particular, we are planning to integrate the educational program for palliative care for cancer patients with an educational program for early detection of cancer. In light of the important role that the cancer control program plays at the local level, we will develop a new three-day program for the directors of the public health center.
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