This clinical four-day course is offered twice a year to ensure that every student has the opportunity to complete it before graduation. Students must have completed at least one core clerkship before taking this course in the eighth week of a core clerkship block. The interdisciplinary faculty use a variety of teaching methods including lecture, assigned reading, team-based learning, small group interactions and use of standardized patients. Students participate in a hospice home or inpatient visit and have time for self-reflection. Invited speakers from the community will also participate.

Course Goals

After participating in this course, medical students will be able to:

• Differentiate between palliative care and hospice.
• Recognize that specific skills can be acquired in order to deliver good palliative care.
• Outline an approach to symptom management.
• Establish a framework for communicating bad news to individuals and their families.
• Give examples of the multidimensional aspects of palliative care.
• Appreciate the role of the physician in the interdisciplinary team in delivering palliative care.
• Examine personal response to caring for the dying patient.
• Distinguish the expected course of normal grieving from complicated bereavement.

Contact

Pamela McCann, M.S.
Senior Medical Training Program Administrator
Email: [email protected]

Time Commitment and Course Length

The course runs for four days.