The Penn Palliative Care Program is deeply committed to educating and training the healthcare workforce to deliver high-quality, compassionate care for patients with serious illness. We operate a competitive, ACGME-accredited fellowship program and serve as a core teaching site for students, residents, and fellows across Penn Medicine. In addition, our Communication Skills Training initiatives equip clinicians from all disciplines with the foundational skills needed to provide generalist palliative care as part of routine practice. These programs focus on supporting clinicians to lead conversations that clarify patient values, align treatment plans with goals, and effectively manage pain and other distressing symptoms. To date, our education efforts have resulted in thousands of documented goals-of-care discussions, strengthening patient-centered decision-making throughout the health system.
Programs and opportunities
CARE-7 is a novel new curriculum at the Perelman School of Medicine designed to significantly expand the skills and knowledge of future physicians by integrating palliative care training throughout all four years of medical education.
An acronym for communication, attention, responsiveness, and empathy—and based on seven key goals—CARE-7 employs best practices to ensure that all medical students graduate with the expertise to help patients and their families better negotiate the symptoms and stressors of serious protracted illness.
Learn more about CARE-7 Palliative Care Curriculum
Communication skills training
An understanding of patients' care goals in the context of a serious illness is an essential element of high-quality care, allowing clinicians to align the care provided with what is most important to the patient. Early discussions about goals of care are associated with better quality of life, reduced use of nonbeneficial medical care near death, enhanced goal-consistent care, positive family outcomes, and reduced costs.1
Bernacki, RE, et al, JAMA 2014
The Penn Palliative Interdisciplinary Learning Forum offers two communication skills trainings.
PennTalk (powered by VitalTalk)
PennTalk is an evidence-based training program that enhances meaningful connection between seriously ill patients and their Penn Medicine clinicians through high-quality communication training using VitalTalk methodology. Open to physicians and advance practice providers across Penn Medicine, these CME eligible courses are a way to take a deep dive into your communication with patients and families. Using simulated patients and facilitated by expert facilitators, sessions are meant to create a safe space to play with new words and phrases to build a deeper connection with your patients, even in the toughest of situations.
At this time, the course offered through Penn Medicine is “Discussing Serious News”.
Want to learn more? Check out www.vitaltalk.org
For more information, please reach out to Barbara Carr, Program Coordinator, Palliative Care Program at barbara.carr1@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.
Serious Illness Care Program (SICP) vs. PennTalk
| SICP | PennTalk (powered by VitalTalk) | |
|---|---|---|
| What? | Systems based approach for improving serious illness care, including practice with the Serious Illness Conversation Guide. | Evidence based training methodologies using simulated patients, to learn how to communicate effectively with seriously ill patients and their families. |
| Training length | Total time: 3 hours | Total time: 4 hours |
| Target Audience | Physicians, APPs, RNs, SWs | Physicians, APPs |
| CME Offerings | Yes for CMEs and CEUs | Yes |
| Results | SICP has been shown to:
|
VitalTalk has been shown to:
|
| In other words…. | You learn HOW to have a serious illness conversation | You learn to ENHANCE the serious illness conversation |