Background

In 2000, the LCME mandated that all medical schools “must” teach about end-of-life care, yet few schools have developed a comprehensive educational program spanning a four year curriculum, including a required component of experiential training. The recent ABMS designation of Hospice and Palliative Care as a medical subspecialty in eleven medical practice areas, adds further impetus for medical schools to develop strong clinical palliative care training for medical students. There is a growing number of hospital-based palliative care consultation programs and/or community based hospice programs that have made it possible for several successful models of experiential training to emerge. This project builds on these models.

Project Goals

This 18 month curriculum change project will expand the pool of medical schools offering sustainable comprehensive didactic and experiential education for students and to enhance faculty members’ ability to teach in these programs. The project is designed to assist six United States medical schools to initiate or improve their palliative care curriculum for 3 rd/4 th year medical students. More specifically, the project goals are to support six schools who seek to:

• Develop a self-sustaining required and an elective palliative care training opportunity for 3rd and 4 th year medical students, that combines both didactic and experiential education.

• Establish a faculty development program in palliative care.

Key Dates

Second quarterly school progress report due	November 1, 2007
One day winter conference for all schools at Northwestern in Chicago	April 16, 2008
Third quarterly school progress report due	March 1, 2008 **
Fourth quarterly school progress report due	July 1, 2008
Final project report due	November 1, 2008 **

** Indicates stipend payment benchmark