ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to give the reader an overview of the diversity of issues and the constantly challenging nature of education in cancer and palliative care throughout the world today. It will be of contrasts, paradoxes and sometimes challenges to the status quo, which the chapter hope will be thought-provoking to the reader. The chapter also poses a series of important questions about healthcare politics, provision and priorities which influence the education process in different cultures. Most palliative care in the developed world is provided in expensive specialist units, and is therefore by its very nature selective. Helping government departments to devise and implement curricula that are workable, realistic and sensitive to cultural norms. Holistic family-centred care that emphasises choice, dignity and individuality is unacceptable to many cultures because it is loaded with western values, and even if it is desirable it may not be achievable due to resource limitations.
