Comprehensive Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program at University Hospitals

The Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program at Case Western Reserve University / University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center prepares fellows to transform healthcare by making high quality palliative care the standard of care for all patients with serious illness wherever they practice, whether academic, private or hybrid. Fellows will graduate with the skills of palliative care expertise fully prepared to practice in hospice settings, palliative care settings and across health systems in new models of care delivery, including tele-health. 

At UH Cleveland Medical Center, we have been creating an environment via our palliative care program to improving access to palliative care via primary and secondary palliative care. We have been working closely with population health to improve care so that it is person-centered, multidisciplinary and rewards value. Fellows will be taught to recognize social determinants to health and find creative solutions to address them.

We are committed to recruiting, training and retaining diverse classes of fellows. We provide an inclusive environment to support all genders, races, ethnicities, religions and socio-economic backgrounds. We believe diversity creates innovative opportunities to increase the educational value for our fellows and encourage applications from from groups underrepresented in medicine.

Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship Objectives

1. To provide comprehensive hospice and palliative medicine education for the fellow to achieve competency and confidence in pain and symptom management, that is culturally competent.
2. To build communication skills to assist patients, families, and healthcare professionals in counseling, educating about symptoms, sharing bad news and the dying process and in managing difficult decision-making.
3. To develop self-care awareness to promote healthy boundary setting and prevention of burnout to ensure a long and productive career in hospice and palliative medicine for both the practitioner and their teams.
4. To develop academic expertise in utilization of the medical literature for evidence-based clinical problem-solving and production of scholarly work to contribute to the field of hospice and palliative medicine.
5. To teach effective leadership of inter-professional teams to meet the needs of complex patients of all ages with serious illness.
6. To develop teaching skills to become teachers for all healthcare professionals to have the skills to deliver effective Primary Palliative Care.
7. To organize training in such a way that fellows relate to innovative palliative care delivery models like tele-health, and care delivery across the continuum of care.
8. To develop leaders in palliative care who are able to leverage technology and social media to advocate, educate and build collaborations/community in hospice and palliative care.