Palliative medicine focuses on symptom management and goals of care as an adjunct to other disease-directed care services—just like cardiology or gastroenterology assists the primary care team.
Hospice medicine focuses on the same symptom management and goals of care at the end of life. Rather than an adjunct to care, hospice assumes full responsibility for patient needs when time is short.
NGMC is unique in that we have two separate departments (Hospice and Palliative) that work beautifully together. It’s a division of labor that can seem tricky at first, but makes for a smooth transition for our patients. We trust the expertise of each service (and each location within the services), and frequently bounce cases off each other to make sure we’re pooling all resources to meet a patient’s needs. HPM fellows will work in each clinical setting: ambulatory palliative clinic, inpatient consult team, inpatient hospice, home hospice, and in-home palliative.
A fellow assumes the role of Master Teacher and provides education and oversight for students, residents, or other learners present on the service. Residents are typically taken onto the inpatient consult service for one-month elective rotations.
Of course! We’d love to help you adjust or enhance your current clinical path. Application process is the same for an attending as it is for a resident. Visit the ERAS to apply.
Per the ACGME Program Requirements for Graduate Medical Education in Hospice and Palliative Medicine (section IIIA1b), eligible applicants have completed a residency in internal medicine, family medicine, child neurology, pediatrics, physical medicine and rehabilitation, radiation oncology, or at least three clinical years in residency program in anesthesiology, emergency medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, radiology, or surgery may apply through the ERAS application service.
The ideal candidate for this fellowship program is one who wants to deliver compassionate, evidence-based medical care to the adult population suffering from serious illness across the continuum of care. This program places a strong emphasis on inpatient palliative medicine consultation.
ONE YEAR! We know. It’s almost too good to be true.
We offer the following resources:
- Ambulatory Palliative Care
- Home Palliative Program
- Home Hospice Program
- Inpatient Hospice Unit
- Inpatient Palliative Consult Team
- Longitudinal Involvement with Neonatology/Pediatrics inpatient
IDT stands for Interdisciplinary Team, and fellows are required to work as a part of such team. The IDT must consist of a physician, a chaplain, a social worker, and a registered nurse.
This is a question palliators hear frequently. We treated the nausea that interrupted life-saving chemotherapy. We helped someone avoid an unnecessary biopsy when she knew it wouldn’t change her treatment plans. We relieved the shortness of breath that kept a COPD patient from spending time with his grandkids. We guided someone through an advance directive so they could control who would make decisions for them later. We brought a pint of ice cream to the patient who chose comfort feeding over the PEG tube. Come to think of it, maybe this job does make us a little sad—sad that some people will never experience this much joy in their work. These are the stories we participate in every single day. The work is powerful–not just for the patients, but for us, too!
Yes, but only J-1 visas.