Emily Beckman

Phone:

317-274-4755

Email:

embeckma@iu.edu

Website:

https://liberalarts.indianapolis.iu.edu/programs/mhhs/directory/emily-s-beckman/

Campus:

IU Indianapolis

Emily Beckman is director of and associate professor in the Medical Humanities and Health Studies Program. She also serves as the co-director of the Scholarly Concentration in Medical Humanities in the IU School of Medicine. She obtained her doctorate from Drew University in 2006. 

Professor Beckman co-founded Build Community Give Care (BCGC), a new non-profit organization that has formed a partnership with Hospice Africa Uganda (HAU), which aims to increase access to palliative care in underserved areas in Africa. In pursuit of this aim, Beckman and her collaborators initiated a pilot project to provide funding support for palliative care training for healthcare workers (HCWs) in Africa. To strengthen the program, especially through support for further enrollment in HAU’s palliative care training courses, greater exploration became necessary to understand how and to what extent the existing training programs meet stakeholder expectations and are contributing towards the provision of quality palliative care services to the communities. 

The main barriers to the provision of palliative care especially in Africa, as identified by healthcare workers, include a lack of adequate training in palliative care, challenges due to increasing patient numbers, and misconceptions about palliative care, among others. Up to this point it has not been clear whether the training programs meet the expectations of stakeholders.

 Beckman's project involves a research study to help better understand the HAU education experience, including barriers to palliative care education and intervention.  As of October 2024, the study has conducted a number of interviews with students, clinical staff, alumni, and healthcare workers.  It the goal of this project that results of the study will help to ultimately extend the intervention to more clinicians outside of Uganda, in regions with historically minimal palliative care access.  Evidence collected from this study will inform practice, policy, and resource allocation for greater impact in Uganda and the whole of Africa.