Didactics and non-clinical experiences are incorporated into academic half-days twice weekly.
Fellowship faculty are committed to providing time and resources for reading, reflection and didactic presentations. Each week of the fellowship, except for holidays, there will be four hours of didactic sessions. Times and sites will be provided on a monthly conference schedule.
Didactic sessions are divided into the following categories:
Advance care planning, advanced counseling skills, basic counseling skills, last hours/days, legal and ethical issues, managing difficult situations, palliative sedation and physician assisted death, prognosis, what is palliative care, and withholding/withdrawing.
Billing and coding, hospice medical direction, hospice, hospitals, intensive care units and nursing homes.
Adverse effects of opioids, basics of opioids, basics of pain, fentanyl, methadone, neuropathic pain, nonopioid analgesics and opioid conversions.
Cancer, dementia, genitourinary problems, geriatrics, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, liver disease, neurologic disease, pediatrics, renal failure, respiratory disease, skin problems and stroke.
Caregiving, cultural aspects, delirium, depression, grief and bereavement, other psychological issues, self-care and spiritual issues.
Anorexia, cachexia and fatigue, artificial nutrition and hydration, bleeding, bowel obstruction, constipation, diarrhea, dysphagia, dyspepsia & hiccups, dyspnea and cough, interventional procedures, jaundice, ascites and hepatic encephalopathy, mouth and eye care, nausea and vomiting, pruritus and sweating, radiation therapy, respiratory secretions and sleep disorders.