Careers in Palliative Medicine With or Without Fellowship

Hospice and palliative medicine is a growing subspecialty within emergency medicine, both in academics, clinical, and community-based practice. The 'choosing wisely' campaign and increasing emphasis on that patient-centered value-based care are motivating providers to implement palliative care within the emergency department. The COVID-19 pandemic transformed palliative care within the emergency department. This session will focus on how these emergency physicians became palliative care advocates in their careers with or without fellowship and also give insights on how to become one in the future. First, we will discuss examples of current palliative care practices in emergency departments in a variety of different settings and how COVID-19 changed or propelled these practices. Attendees will identify basic skills to effectively communicate, interpret advance directives, manage refractory symptoms, and manage patients near the end of life. Next, we will demonstrate our own career paths to palliative care and lessons learned both before and during COVID-19. New opportunities and emerging career pathways will be categorized to help providers understand the variety of networks to assist in career planning. Lastly, we will field questions virtually on how and where to implement palliative care into the ED. Our panel is made of diverse EM-PC providers including dual HPM fellowship trained providers, mid-career changers, and administrative leaders.