Undergraduate medical education:

Practice Course: In this second year medical student course, Dr. James Tulsky teaches sessions on pain management, palliative care, and futility. Joanna Parker teaches bereavement care. (Course director: Barbara Sheline, MD).

 

A Taste of Palliative Care: In this second year medical student clinical two-week selective, students have the opportunity to observe and work alongside various palliative care practitioners in community, inpatient, outpatient and hospice settings, with an emphasis on the importance of multi-disciplinary teamwork. Concepts explored include common fears and challenges experienced by those with chronic, life-limiting illness, bio-psychosocial models of care, palliative care symptom management, the family interface, grief, and bereavement.

 

Oncology Intercession: Dr. Amy Abernethy leads this second year medical student course, during which students learn about advance care planning and delivering bad news. (Course director Victoria S. Kaprielian, MD)

Graduate medical education:

PREPARE: (Program of Resident Education to Promote Awareness and Respect at the End of life) is an intensive two day retreat for medical house staff that teaches the basic principles of palliative care. The retreat is held approximately five times a year and offered to house officers serving on their ambulatory care rotation. Through small group experiential exercises, discussion and role play residents learn pain and symptom control as well as fundamental communication skills such as delivering bad news and discussing advance directives and DNR orders. Initially started as a controlled trial funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, it demonstrated effectiveness in increasing resident knowledge and enhancing specific communication skills. This highly popular and successful program has continued since as a fundamental component of the Duke Medicine residency.