Palliative Care Social Worker Onboarding Curriculum

An introduction to palliative care, how it is delivered, its impact on quality of life, and the growing population of patients who need it.

Learn best practices for having patient-centered conversations about a serious illness diagnosis.

Learn how to effectively discuss prognosis with patients and their caregivers.

Learn best practices for building trust, eliciting patient values, and having patient-centered conversations about goals of care.

Learn to effectively lead meetings that help patients and caregivers become aligned around the patient’s goals.

Learn techniques to help patients and their caregivers plan for the future, both during the early stages of a serious illness and as a disease progresses.

Guidance for all clinicians on improving communication and ensuring smooth transitions of care for patients living with serious illness.

Assessing and supporting caregivers of people with serious illness.

This course provides context and best practices for identifying older adults at risk for poor outcomes, including falls, delirium, and caregiving challenges.

Learn to define and characterize pain, recognize the prevalence of pain, understand disparities in pain management based on race, ethnicity, and gender.

Learn the components of a comprehensive pain assessment and its importance in safe and effective pain management.

Gain an overview of pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic pain treatments, including risks and benefits, and learn how to match the analgesic to pain type.

Learn to develop a pain treatment plan with realistic goals and proper documentation, and implement universal precautions to help with the risk of opioid use disorder.

Learn how to identify and diagnose opioid use disorder (OUD) and practice communicating with patients about OUD and pain management.

After completing this course, learners will be equipped with evidence-based strategies to identify and treat anxiety in patients living with a serious illness.

After completing this course, learners will have the tools to accurately identify and treat depression in patients living with a serious illness.