Rotation in Palliative Medicine and Hospice

Catalog Description: The course is intended to introduce students to the field of palliative care. The rotation will be based out of University of Minnesota Medical Center. Primarily students will spend the rotation working on the inpatient palliative care consult team, seeing inpatient consults with physicians and other practitioners on the multidisciplinary team, including advanced practice providers, social workers, and spiritual health providers. This course is included in Family  Medicine because of the importance of this topic to successful primary care practice, however students will not necessarily work with family medicine physicians. Additionally, students planning on attending any type of residency program (not just family medicine) are encouraged to register, as training in palliative care concepts is relevant to all areas of medicine.

Sites: FU - UMMC, 500 SE Harvard St., Minneapolis, MN 55455

Required session attendance:

Typical weekly schedule/Delivery Mode: M-F, 7:30am-5:00pm

Direct patient care: Yes

Consent Requirement: Open to student scheduling

Course Objectives: After spending time with the palliative care and hospice teams the student will be able to:

• Formulate a plan for symptom management, especially pain control.
• Identify good and bad communication skills, and have a limited repertoire of scripts for use in palliative care discussions.
• Describe the value of a family meeting.
• Display competency in a model for delivering bad news.
• Understand the role and function of an interdisciplinary team.
• Perform a Palliative Care History.

Graded Components: 

• Clinical Assessment by attending

Grading Scale: P/N