Palliative Care
The Palliative Care Fellowship is a 12-month program designed to equip physician assistants and nurse practitioners with the specialized skill sets necessary to assist patients and families who are diagnosed with a prolonged or life-threatening illness. With a focus on provider transition to practice, the program is structured to develop and strengthen clinical proficiencies while increasing competence and confidence alongside a multidisciplinary team of well-rounded healthcare providers. Completion of this exceptional fellowship affords graduates the expertise to deliver comprehensive healthcare services together with the care coordination services which are essential to support best quality of life and appropriate symptom management.
Clinical Settings
Palliative Care fellows are exposed to a variety of patient populations in both inpatient and outpatient settings to include: a level one trauma hospital, rural hospitals, home setting, inpatient hospice sites and skilled nursing facilities. Training opportunities are available in both urban and rural communities. These clinical encounters provide fellows with hands-on experience, established skills inventory, collaboration with other specialties, as well as a network of referral sources. Emphasis is placed on developing strategies for effective collaboration within a multidisciplinary team and utilizing a family centered approach to care.
Comprehensive Post-Graduate Approach
The Palliative Care Fellowship promotes transition to practice through evidence-based instruction and experience. The innovative curriculum offers an expansive immersion in the areas of palliative care, critical care, outpatient oncology, hospice, and geriatric emergency as well as an elective training experience concentrated to the fellow’s particular interest in the field. Fellows benefit from a core curriculum, weekly didactic education, direct patient care, specialty rotations, simulation training, journal club, case presentations and interprofessional educational opportunities. This comprehensive post-graduate approach offers the advantage of a guided learning experience and direct patient care while in a protected learning environment which increases confidence and in turn presents a smoother transition to practice.
Graduates will perform with increased proficiency in the areas of preventive, emergent, acute, chronic, rehabilitative, palliative and end-of-life patient care with developed expertise in behavioral health diagnoses commonly encountered in outpatient clinics placing them one step above the traditional internal medicine provider.
Fellowship Structure Includes- Palliative Care Core Curriculum
- Medical Critical Care or Trauma Intensive Care
- Outpatient Palliative Medicine Oncology Clinic
- Hospice (inpatient facility and home visits)
- Geriatric Emergency Room Consultations
- Pediatrics
- Palliative Care at Rural Hospital
- Palliative Care in a Post-Acute Care Environment
- Leadership/Administration Experience
- Pain Management
- Consultation etiquette
- Advanced directives
- Communication techniques
- Assessment of decision making capacity
- Determining prognosis
- Symptom management
- Pain management
- Withdrawal of life sustaining treatment
- Spiritual care assessment
- Impact of culture and region
- Medical ethics
- Grief and bereavement
- Moral distress
- Compassion fatigue / self-care
- Importance of evidence based care
- Organ-system based palliative care