On top of a busy day, what makes someone spend even more hours in front of a laptop and contribute to a blog – for no pay and not even cake! Avril Jackson, Editor of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) blog, says how much we appreciate our contributors and announces the authors of the most-viewed posts for the first half of 2021.
Ten years ago, we launched the EAPC blog and a tentative dive into the world of social media. Along the way, we’ve met some wonderful people. Together, they have enabled us to present some of the latest thinking in palliative care: from research and practice development to personal stories and perspectives – in a format that is short, engaging and quick to digest for busy practitioners and academics alike.
Our contributors are the backbone of the blog, and we thank them all. Many of them have kept us regularly ‘posted’ throughout those ten years, some of whom feature in this year’s edition of the Top Ten most-viewed posts for the first half of 2021 announced below.
Now, ten years on, we’ve published 1,134 blog posts, crafted by countless clinicians, practitioners, volunteers, academics and researchers involved in palliative care. You can still view every one of those posts – spend a few minutes browsing the many categories (on the right-hand side of every blog post) and you might unearth some hidden treasure!
In 2021, we published 113 posts enabling our contributors to disseminate their work to readers in 158 countries and 23 dependent territories. That means 81 per cent of the world’s countries viewed our blog – proof that the EAPC goes way beyond Europe.
Based on the viewing statistics, we are delighted to introduce you to the authors of our Top Ten most-viewed posts for the first six months of 2021. Views are cumulative throughout the year; thus, to ensure that posts published in the last part of the year are not unfairly disadvantaged, we will publish the results of the Top Ten most-viewed posts from July to December 2021 later this year.
Top Ten most-viewed posts – click on the title to read more…
Robert Twcross, UK: Reflections to mark 50 years in palliative care: A trinity of patient care, education and training and research
Aliki J Tserkezoglou, Greece: “Galilee” Palliative Care Centre: A Greek Palliative Care Story
Heather Richardson and Libby Sallnow, UK: Fellowship programme goes online and unites palliative care pioneers from across the world
Friederike Koehler, Marco Warth, Martin Brehmen, Martin Weber, Hubert J Bardenheuer, Beate Ditzen and Jens Kessler, Germany: Song of life : Music therapy at the end of life
Leena Surakka and Minna M Peake, Finland: Integration of paramedic services into end of life care at home: From pilot trial to everyday practice
Seamus O’Mahoney, Ireland: Is palliative care having an existential crisis?
Ebun Abarshi, UK: My experience of working in a hospice in the Covid 19 pandemic
Minna Hökkä and Juho Lehto, Finland: Together towards better palliative care education for nurses and physicians: The Edupal Finland project.
Sophie Crawley, UK: Empowering better end-of-life dementia care: EMBED care programme
Maria Arantzamendi, Alazne Belar Beitia and Carlos Centeno, Spain: Clinical aspects of palliative sedation in prospective studies : A systematic review
And just to prove that our contributors are truly appreciated, here’s a comment from one of our readers who wrote to me following the publication of a recent post:
“Thank you EAPC for the quality posts over the years that have given me an instant update on knowledge, research, practice and policy to guide my teaching and writing… a prize for a busy palliative care professional.” (Comment from a social worker, counsellor and educationalist in palliative care in the UK).
If we could have two ‘backbones’ of the blog, then the second would surely be the incredible editorial/social media team that I have had the pleasure to work with for all, or some, of these past ten years. I am now retiring for the second time in my life – but this time for good – and I am delighted to hand over to Catherine White, the new editor of the blog who will join the EAPC team next week on 1 February.
To everyone I’ve met along the way – contributors and the teams I work with – who have made the EAPC blog something to be proud of:
“All the cake in the world couldn’t thank you enough.” (‘The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse’, Charlie Mackesy).
Your work on behalf of patients and families across the world, and your willingness to share your work on the blog, is an inspiration to us all. Please keep on contributing…
Links
- Join palliative care specialists across the world who are following the EAPC blog – sign up here to receive an email each time a post is published.
- To contribute to the EAPC blog, please check the Contributor’s Guidelines
- Read more about the EAPC editorial/social media team.
- Follow the EAPC on Twitter @EAPCvzw, Facebook Linkedin Instagram or visit our website.
WELCOME TO EAPC 12TH WORLD RESEARCH CONGRESS ONLINE – 18 – 20 MAY 2022
- DISCOVER new avenues for international collaborative research in palliative care.
- APPLY for EAPC Researcher Awards 2022. Last chance to apply 31 January 2022.
- REGISTER @ https://eapccongress.eu/2022/register/ before 28 February to benefit from Early Bird discount. Special discount for EAPC members.
- FOLLOW @EAPCvzw #EAPC2022.
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