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Core Palliative Care Skills for Medical Residents and Fellows
This Learning Pathway contains training in core clinical skills to help medical residents and fellows improve quality of life for patients living with serious illness. Topics include an introduction to the principles and practices of palliative care, communication techniques for effective conversations with patients and caregivers, pain management, and safe opioid prescribing. This Pathway contains approximately 5.5 hours of learning activities.
Understanding Palliative Care
Introduction to Palliative Care
An introduction to palliative care, how it is delivered, its impact on quality of life, and the growing population of patients who need it.
Communicating Effectively During Serious Illness
Discussing Serious News
Learn best practices for having patient-centered conversations about a serious illness diagnosis.
Clarifying Patient Goals of Care
Learn best practices for building trust, eliciting patient values, and having patient-centered conversations about goals of care.
Goals of Care Conversation: Role Play
In this video, Kacey Boyle, RN, MSPC, leads us through an example of a goals of care conversation between a clinician and a patient.
“I Don’t See Color” Means You Don’t See Me
Why clinicians must unlearn well-intentioned but ultimately harmful conventions about race and ethnicity—and strategies to move forward.
Managing Pain Safely and Effectively
Course 1: Pain and its Impact on Our Patients
Learn to define and characterize pain, recognize the prevalence of pain, understand disparities in pain management based on race, ethnicity, and gender.
Course 2: How to Perform a Comprehensive Pain Assessment
Learn the components of a comprehensive pain assessment and its importance in safe and effective pain management.
Course 3: Matching Treatment to Pain Type
Gain an overview of pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic pain treatments, including risks and benefits, and learn how to match the analgesic to pain type.
Course 4: Prescribing an Opioid
Learn how to decide on an appropriate opioid, route of delivery, and dose, and understand how to prescribe for incident and breakthrough pain.
Course 5: Practice Prescribing an Opioid
Practice prescribing initial opioid doses for different pain types and characteristics. Learn to adjust dosing as needed to manage pain effectively.
Course 6: Creating a Pain Treatment Plan and Monitoring Effectiveness
Learn to develop a pain treatment plan with realistic goals and proper documentation, and implement universal precautions to help with the risk of opioid use disorder.
Course 8: Problems with Opioid Prescribing: Is it an Opioid Use Disorder?
Learn how to identify and diagnose opioid use disorder (OUD) and practice communicating with patients about OUD and pain management.
Preventing Avoidable Crises
Reducing Risks for Older Adults
This course provides context and best practices for identifying older adults at risk for poor outcomes, including falls, delirium, and caregiving challenges.
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