Palliative Care

Educational Programs

Resident Education

All second-year residents in the Internal Medicine and Medicine/Pediatric residency programs are required to complete a two-week clinical palliative care rotation. Working with palliative care faculty and nurse practitioners, residents perform palliative care consultations and provide support for Strong Memorial Hospital patients.

Upon completion of the rotation, the resident will:

• Understand the potential of palliative care to improve quality of life for seriously ill patients
  
  
• Develop basic knowledge and skills related to pain and symptom management
  
  
• Learn how to talk with and listen to severely ill patients and their families about psychosocial, emotional and spiritual suffering
  
  
• Learn how to have timely discussions with patients and families about:
  • Do-not-resuscitate (DNR) and Do-not-intubate (DNI)
  • Advance Directives
  • Prognosis
  • Bad news
  • Risks and benefits of hospice
  • Risks and benefits of experimental treatment
    
    
• Learn about last-resort options available to address severe, unrelenting suffering
  
  
• Learn how to function as a member of a multidisciplinary team
  
  
• Develop self-awareness about one’s own personal responses to severely ill and dying patients

We have obtained the Mannix Award and a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation to extend key elements of this palliative care training into many of our residency programs.