) The Division of Primary Care of Harvard Medical School, the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention of Harvard Community Health Plan and Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts General Hospital, the Trinity Hospice of Greater Boston, and the Hospice of Cambridge propose an educational partnership for the purpose of educating medical students and primary care residents about hospice and palliative medicine. Throughout its implementation, this program will focus not just on knowledge and skill development, but will have an intensive emphasis on the development of attitudes that facilitate the goals and process of hospice and palliative care. This collaboration will provide medical students and residents with basic competencies in caring for dying persons, and will enhance the educational skills of hospice team members and other faculty supervisors. It will prepare primary care residents to serve as leaders in the development of hospice and palliative medicine as academic and clinical disciplines, and will educate palliative medicine consultants,hospice team leaders, and primary physicians to care effectively for terminally patients. In consultation with an Education Steering Committee for this project, the principal investigator will plan a core curriculum in palliative medicine for medical students and primary care residents, develop educational materials (including written and videotaped cases) for both curricula, implement a new course for medical students and new training experiences for selected primary care residents,organize clinical experiences with hospice patients for students throughout all four years of medical school and for residents during their graduate training, implement a faculty development program for staff from the two affiliated hospice programs and faculty supervisors, evaluate the effectiveness of these educational experiences, disseminate curricular materials, and publish and present evaluative information about these programs.
| Fromme, Erik; Billings, J Andrew (2003) Care of the dying doctor: on the other end of the stethoscope. JAMA 290:2048-55 |
| Billings, J Andrew; Dahlin, Constance; Dungan, Sheryn et al. (2003) Psychosocial training in a palliative care fellowship. J Palliat Med 6:355-63 |
| Block, Susan D (2002) Medical education in end-of-life care: the status of reform. J Palliat Med 5:243-8 |
| Block, S D (2000) Assessing and managing depression in the terminally ill patient. ACP-ASIM End-of-Life Care Consensus Panel. American College of Physicians - American Society of Internal Medicine. Ann Intern Med 132:209-18 |
| Billings, J A (2000) Recent advances: palliative care. BMJ 321:555-8 |
| Block, S; Billings, J A (1998) Nurturing humanism through teaching palliative care. Acad Med 73:763-5 |
| Billings, J A; Block, S (1997) Palliative care in undergraduate medical education. Status report and future directions. JAMA 278:733-8 |
