ABSTRACT
This chapter examines teaching approaches to hope and suffering as key component of cancer and palliative care education. It offers opportunities to challenge learners' attitudes and skills by utilising a range of creative approaches in the classroom to enhance learning about hope and suffering. When one attempts to inspire hope and reduce suffering, this begins as soon as the patient and family become active participants in care. The chapter argues that a clear conceptual grasp of the fundamentals of the complex nature of hope and its close bedfellow, suffering, is a core foundation to successful palliative care education. There are very few subjects which are taboo within good palliative care education. Experienced educators in the field are used to tackling sensitive topics like sexuality, and spiritual care, and do so with enthusiasm, creativity and vigour, yet despite this it is rare to find the topics of hope and suffering given explicit curriculum time.
