Development of required postgraduate palliative care training for internal medicine residents and medical oncology fellows.

Background: The need for better care for terminally ill patients led us to create an educational program to provide internal medicine residents and medical oncology fellows basic competency in palliative and end-of-life care.

Methods: An interdisciplinary team identified educational strategies, course objectives, content, and evaluation instruments.

Results And Conclusions: Our strategy is to use a required Web-based course to establish a knowledge base upon which specific training during clinical rotations build skills.

Required training in hospice and palliative care at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Background: Over a period of four years the authors developed and integrated into the curriculum of their medical school training programs in palliative medicine. Critical required elements in the freshman year focus on attitudes and the physician's role in the care of terminally ill patients and their families. A 16-hour module has been designed to be a required element for junior students.

Incorporation of a "Coping with the Death of a Child" module into the pediatric advanced life support (PALS) curriculum.

Objective: To develop an educational module for health professionals (HPs) addressing the clinical reality of death as an outcome of pediatric resuscitation efforts. Module goals were to: 1) reduce HPs' discomfort with situations involving patient death and survivor grief, 2) assist HPs coping with their own emotions surrounding a patient death, and 3) provide specific strategies useful in clinical management. The module was designed to be presented as part of the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) provider course.

Hospice and palliative care education in medical school: a module on the role of the physician in end-of-life care.

Background: As a part of a program to integrate comprehensive palliative care education at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, a new teaching module was incorporated into the Introduction to Clinical Practice course for freshman medical students.

Methods: The module is entitled "The Role and Responsibility of the Physician in Palliative and End-of-life Care: the Inter-disciplinary Team Approach." The teaching objectives are: 1) describe the value of palliative and end-of-life care as a professional practice; 2) delineate the barriers to physician competence in end-of-life care; 3) describe the concept of hospice and the multidisciplinary approach to the care of the terminally ill; 4) List the fundamental areas of knowledge and skills required for a physician to be an effective member of the palliative care team.

Educational program in palliative and hospice care at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Background: The objective of this enterprise was and is to develop a validatable educational program on palliative and hospice care with a multidisciplinary perspective for the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Methods: An interdisciplinary education committee consisting of experts in palliative and hospice care and an expert in educational design and evaluation was established to develop the program. Program development, which is ongoing, includes a comprehensive instructional design phase, vertical integration of the program into the medical school curriculum, and outcome evaluation.