1. Empowering Future Clinicians with Palliative Care Skills: Lessons from a Statewide Medical School Collaborative (FR216B).
- Author
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Reidy, Jennifer, Fischer, Melissa, Jaramillo, Carolina, Stumpf, Isabella, Yeh, Irene, Young, Megan, and Vesel, Tamara
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MEDICAL schools , *PALLIATIVE treatment , *EDUCATIONAL standards , *SELF-efficacy , *MEDICAL students , *STANDARDIZED tests , *CURRICULUM evaluation - Abstract
Outcomes: 1. Learn about the Massachusetts Medical Schools' Collaborative's toolbox of educational competencies and curriculum mapping in serious illness communication, with examples on using the tools to improve curricula at each school 2. Generate ideas and strategies for developing educational activities at your own institution that promote learners' acquisition of palliative care skills, regardless of their future discipline All clinicians require a sophisticated set of serious illness communication (SIC) skills to ensure high-quality, humanistic care for patients and families from diverse communities as they face life-changing medical decisions at vulnerable times in their lives. However, most clinicians are not trained in SIC and, as former students, learned these concepts "on the fly" or in electives. The Massachusetts Medical Schools' Collaborative was created to change this paradigm and ensure all students receive foundational SIC training. The collaborative includes faculty, administrators, and students from four schools (Boston University School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Tufts University School of Medicine, and UMass Chan Medical School) and is convened by the Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care, a group of over 125 member organizations focused on equity in serious illness care. Our collaborative seeks to develop longitudinal, developmentally based curricula in SIC. We first developed and published five educational SIC competencies. We then created a standardized curriculum mapping process to understand existing educational activities across schools and opportunities to fill gaps defined by the competencies. The collaborative also conducted focus groups with 50 fourth-year medical students; among key themes, students viewed SIC as essential, yet described their exposure as based mostly on "luck" if they were included in family meetings or coached on SIC. Armed with the competencies, curricular mapping, and focus group data, leaders at each school are expanding curricula in SIC and palliative care based on local needs and resources. Presenters will use most of the session to share concrete examples of curriculum design and implementation based on the collaborative's toolbox, which will be available for participants to bring to their own institutions. As a field, we can make this critical investment in the next generation of clinicians and create educational best practices to help build more trustworthy, equitable healthcare systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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