Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program

Interprofessional faculty and education

Our Georgetown University School of Medicine faculty includes physicians, nurse practitioners, chaplains, social workers, and pharmacists. As national leaders in palliative care research and education, they bring a wealth of expertise to your training. You will learn come from clinicians across disciplines who are passionate about serving our patients and educating the next generation of palliative care professionals.

You will receive well-rounded interprofessional training and education alongside social work and nurse practitioner fellows in our unique interprofessional palliative care program. This collaborative approach equips you with the essential skills necessary to become a well-rounded palliative care clinician.

Breadth of training

Our physician fellowship program prepares fellows to deliver high-quality palliative care across the spectrum of illness and care settings. This means we assist our patients early at the diagnosis of a serious illness all the way through to providing end-of-life and bereavement care. Fellows will gain experience serving across a variety of settings from supportive oncology clinics to the fast-paced, high-tech surgical intensive care unit.

Your primary site of training will be MedStar Washington Hospital Center, a busy tertiary care, trauma, and burn center that includes the MedStar Washington Cancer Institute and the MedStar Heart and Vascular Institute. You will provide palliative care services for patients with complex conditions, including those with end-stage heart failure supported on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) as they await a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) or heart transplant. Also patients with devastating neurosurgical illnesses, progressive surgical and oncological diseases among others.

Educational and research opportunities

MedStar Washington Hospital Center is the largest hospital in the MedStar Health system which includes MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and the MedStar Health Research Institute (MHRI). These relationships give you access to a wealth of expertise and resources across the system.

As a fellow, you will immediately take on a leadership and educator role for the many learners rotating on our service. We host third and fourth year Georgetown University School of Medicine students on their clinical clerkships in palliative medicine. Palliative care electives are also required for critical care, oncology, surgical, and physical medicine & rehabilitation (PM&R) cancer rehab fellows. We also serve as a training site for pain and palliative medicine pharmacy residents.

Nationally recognized partnerships

We partner with Capital Caring Health to provide our fellows with a robust and comprehensive hospice experience. Capital Caring is one of the nation’s first and largest hospice providers, caring for more than 1,200 patients.

Children’s National Medical Center is our pediatric partner, where fellows spend at least one month providing palliative care to seriously ill children at one of the top 10 pediatric hospitals in the country.

Didactics

Fellows participate in a variety of educational experiences throughout the year, including:

Electives

To meet individual learning needs, each fellow may select elective rotations from within or outside of the MedStar Health-Georgetown University system.

MedStar Health-Georgetown University electives include:

• Clinical Ethics
• Consult Liaison Psychiatry
• Interventional Pain Service
• Cancer Rehabilitation
• Total Elder Care/Geriatrics House Calls
• MedStar Georgetown University Hospital Palliative Care
• MedStar Union Memorial Hospital Palliative Care (Baltimore, MD)
• Research.

Scholarship

Throughout the year fellows will engage in a variety of scholarly projects, including quality improvement initiatives, and present a year-end capstone lecture.