Comprehensive Palliative Care Skills for Medical Students
This Learning Pathway contains comprehensive clinical skills training to help medical students understand the needs of patients with serious illness and how palliative care can help. Topics include an introduction to the principles and practices of palliative care, communication techniques for effective conversations with patients and caregivers, and pain and symptom management. This Pathway contains approximately 6 hours of learning activities.
Understanding 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
Communicating serious clinical news to patients and families.
How to discuss patient prognosis in a manner that is sensitive, clear, and supportive.
Strategies for eliciting patient goals and preferences to inform treatment decisions.
Communication techniques for an effective family meeting.
How to initiate and conduct conversations about advance care planning.
In this video, Kacey Boyle, RN, MSPC, leads us through an example of a goals of care conversation between a clinician and a patient.
Why clinicians must unlearn well-intentioned but ultimately harmful conventions about race and ethnicity—and strategies to move forward.
Managing Pain and Symptoms
Conducting a comprehensive pain assessment to guide safe and effective treatment.
Take this online course to learn evidence-based strategies to identify and treat anxiety in patients with a serious illness.
Preventing Avoidable Crises
This course provides context and best practices for identifying older adults at risk for poor outcomes, including falls, delirium, and caregiving challenges.
This interactive whodunit game challenges learners to conduct a thorough clinical investigation of a patient with delirium to diagnose the cause(s).
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