Palliative Medicine

[rpkall]

Hi all;

I start med school in the fall, and though I obviously haven't decided on my direction post-medschool, palliative care and hospice is something I'm very interested in.

I thought I would post on here to see if there were any FPs who got involved in this aspect of care either through a fellowship or some other post-grad training.

I currently volunteer at hospice, and I find it to be a most rewarding experience; it seems that the intersection of IM, psychiatry, social work, pain medicine, and spirituality probably make for a diverse and exciting workplace.

But is there a "stigma" attached to palliative medicine? Since it isn't cure-driven, and since so much of it is "trial and error" or not quantitative (i.e., pain control, psychiatric crossroads), do you run the risk of losing your diagnostic and procedure-related skills? Do other physicians see palliation as "less important" or "less impressive" or secondary?

Is hospice/palliative medicine something that can be done full time without losing those qualities as a physician which make you a good diagnostician and treatment instrument?

Or is this something that should be done one to two days a week, complementing a two/three day office schedule?

Thanks for any and all help/anecdotes/info you can provide!

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[rpkall]

bump?

 

[FMbound]

Hi all;

I start med school in the fall, and though I obviously haven't decided on my direction post-medschool, palliative care and hospice is something I'm very interested in.

I thought I would post on here to see if there were any FPs who got involved in this aspect of care either through a fellowship or some other post-grad training.

I currently volunteer at hospice, and I find it to be a most rewarding experience; it seems that the intersection of IM, psychiatry, social work, pain medicine, and spirituality probably make for a diverse and exciting workplace.

But is there a "stigma" attached to palliative medicine? Since it isn't cure-driven, and since so much of it is "trial and error" or not quantitative (i.e., pain control, psychiatric crossroads), do you run the risk of losing your diagnostic and procedure-related skills? Do other physicians see palliation as "less important" or "less impressive" or secondary?

Is hospice/palliative medicine something that can be done full time without losing those qualities as a physician which make you a good diagnostician and treatment instrument?

Or is this something that should be done one to two days a week, complementing a two/three day office schedule?

Thanks for any and all help/anecdotes/info you can provide!

You should contact someone at AAFP for more information. There are many discussion listservs and there might be one for hospice career advice.

 

[dr.smurf]

i know one of our 3rd yr graduating residents is going to do a fellowship in palliative/hospice care in july. she is going to do exclusive hospice/palliation, but i know there are docs who do both. we have a private attending who does just that. he does traditional fp (outpt/inpt) group practice and does hospice as a consultant with a local hospice group. there are protocols and he works closely with hospice nurses who do the brunt of hospice care. he obviously stays very busy. it sounds like you want to be more like him in that you continue to practice full scope of F.P. as well as hospice. again, the beauty of fp is that you can do pretty much what you want. as you started out you probably wouldnt be that busy with doing exlusive hospice. but, as you were in it for a while and decided to drop the general f.p. part you could. hospice/palliation is a fairly new field and a growing one. so the job outlook looks really good. hope this helps. check out the aafp fellowship site for more info.