Hospice and Palliative Medicine

Catalog description

Hospice and Palliative Medicine is a specialty that is focused on the treatment of patients living with serious illness. Comprehensive care, including physical (primarily symptom management), psychological, and spiritual care, is provided by an interdisciplinary team to patients and families to help alleviate suffering and promote quality of life. This 2-week (Monday-Friday), 2-credit elective provides students the opportunity to observe and work alongside palliative care practitioners in inpatient settings including the palliative care consult services at Duke University Hospital and Duke Regional Hospital, as well as inpatient hospice exposure through Duke Home Care & Hospice. The importance of interdisciplinary teamwork will be emphasized. You will arrive at your assigned site at 8:30AM on the first day; a personalized schedule with further details will be sent to you by email prior to the first day. Attendance/Absence Policy: This is a 10-day rotation and students are required to be present with the team a minimum of 9 days (90% of the course) in order to make the most of the rotation and to ensure that our clinicians are able to appropriately assess and grade the learning experience. If students need to miss more than 2 days of the rotation they will need to drop the course at least 10 days prior to the start date to allow time for other learners to have an opportunity to enroll. All absences must be approved by the course director (Dr. Neha Kayastha) before the start of your rotation. Any absence without prior notification of the course director is considered unexcused unless documentation of inability to make those contacts is provided. Any absence not approved by the course director for a required part of a course is considered unexcused. An unexcused absence will have a negative impact on the student's grade or evaluation and may result in a Code of…