HPM fellowship and hospitalist?

[skyblue2000]

I plan on applying to HPM fellowship next year and eventually doing both hospitalist and inpatient palliative care. Should I state this in my personal statement? I don’t want it to seem like I’m not committed to the field, however, I do want to continue practicing internal medicine after training.

Any thoughts?

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[geripalgal]

Interesting question. I think honesty is important, as im sure it will be clear later on in the year when you arent applying for palliative jobs. Dont be surprised if programs prefer candidates who want to stay and advance the field.

That being said, a hospitalist who knows how to handle and discuss goals and endof life care is wirth their weight in gold - so if you can spin it the right way in your personal statement then you can be honest but also appealing. There are many hospitalists who ended up being the ones to start palliative programs at small hospitals etc, so the added training can be very useful.


Also, keep in mind that: if you do palliative care clinic down the road that might have enough internal med to keep you satisfied.

Or if you are really just loooking to work in IM but have some added skills in palli, there are many smaller courses you could take (harvard has one for example) that wouldnt require you to devote an entire year for fellowship. You wouldnt be able to work as a palliative care doc with this route though..

 

[skyblue2000]

Thank you for the response.
In an ideal world, I'd like to do 5 days a week for hospitalist and palliative care inpatient on rotating weeks. I also really enjoyed rotating at a hospice and would like to be involved in running a hospice later in life. I agree, palliative care training would be helpful as a hospitalist but I want to practice both eventually. Our palliative care department is pretty sparse at the moment in my hospital, so there really isn't anyone I could personally ask.

 

[SourceOfDenial]

Doing both hospitalist and palliative is quite common--especially in saturated cities where a hospital system can't always hire another FTE. Stating your intention of doing essentially primary palliative care care and speciality palliative care wouldn't be an issue.