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 conferences, two hours each on Tuesday and Friday afternoons. Times and sites will be provided on a monthly conference schedule. Most conferences will be held either at the hospital palliative care service or at Atrium Health Navicent Hospice Pine Pointe, the inpatient Hospice. Didactic sessions are specifically designed to complement clinical experiences.
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 & 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 & bereavement, other psychological issues, self care and spiritual issues.
Anorexia, cachexia & fatigue, artifical nutrition & hydration, bleeding, bowel obstruction, constipation, diarrhea, dysphagia, dyspepsia & hiccups, dyspnea & cough, interventional procedures, jaundice, ascites & hepatic encephalopathy, mouth & eye care, nausea & vomiting, pruritus & sweating, radiation therapy, respiratory secretions, and sleep disorders.
There is a total of 190 hours of didactic conferences during the twelve month fellowship. HPM fellows receive an extensive evidence-based collection of journal articles, book chapters, and other palliative care resources at fellowship orientation. Readings are anchored in our own text, The "Navicent Textbook of Hospice & Palliative Medicine."