The Palliative Medicine Fellowship at Indiana University is designed to train fellows in the provision of expert palliative care to diverse populations. The fellowship also provides fellows with the skills required to disseminate the principles of palliative medicine through teaching and research.

This curriculum closely follows the Initial Voluntary Program Standards for Residency Education in Palliative Medicine Version 10.0. Fellows will participate in a wide range of experiences. This includes an inpatient consult service, two inpatient hospice/palliative care units, a long-term care facility, two palliative medicine ambulatory clinics, three home hospice programs, and a hospice home for the dying poor. Fellows participate in an interdisciplinary approach to care in each setting.

Fellows will also have the opportunity to participate in variety of electives, including radiation oncology, anesthesia pain service, and hematology/oncology, geriatrics, advanced heart failure clinic, neuromuscular disorder (ALS) clinic, ethics consultation, pediatrics, and interventional radiology.

The fellowship’s affiliation with Wishard Health Services, IU Health’s Methodist, University and Riley Hospitals, as well as, St. Vincent Health optimizes the depth and breadth of the educational experience. Furthermore, these institutions all have coordinated relationships with community hospices, clinics, and nursing facilities. This helps ensure that fellows obtain optimal experience managing patients longitudinally and across settings. During a one year fellowship, fellows will gain expertise in the following domains:

• Communication
• Ethical and legal decision making
• Pain in cancer and non-cancer patients
• Management of non-pain symptoms
• Medical co-morbidities and complications in populations with life threatening diseases
• Neuro-psychiatric co-morbidities in populations with life-threatening diseases
• Psychosocial and spiritual support
• Death and dying
• Bereavement support for the family
• Quality improvement and research methodology in populations with advanced illnesses
• The hospice and palliative approach to care
• Interdisciplinary team work Outlined in the sections below are the goals and activities of each core experience during a one year fellowship. During the fellowship, the following overall goals will be met:
• Fellows will demonstrate competency in six main areas, including patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning, communication skills, professionalism, and systems based practice.
• Fellows will evaluate at minimum 150 new patients over twelve months.
• Fellows will follow at minimum 50 patients longitudinally and across settings.
• Fellows will perform home visits, seeing a minimum of 50 patients in this setting.
• Fellows will manage the care of at least 25 patients in a long-term care facility.
• Fellow will be available by pager at all times to address on-call needs of longitudinal patients. The program director and hospice medical directors will be available for backup and coverage when fellow is not available.
• Fellows will participate in semimonthly palliative care lectures and monthly journal clubs.
• Fellows will meet regularly with various interdisciplinary team members to discuss performance and self-care.