The first four weeks of your fellowship will focus on strengthening your foundation in palliative care principles through a combination of classroom learning and clinical experience.

• Core communication and goals-of-care skills
• Comprehensive symptom management 
• Roles of interdisciplinary team members
• Professional development and system-based practice
• Inpatient and outpatient exposure and application

This rotation will prepare you to confidently handle the rigors of fellowship.

The inpatient palliative care service occurs approximately every other month throughout the academic year and serves as the cornerstone of the fellowship experience.

During this rotation, fellows work closely with interdisciplinary teams to provide:

• Intensive symptom management
• Goals-of-care discussions
• Advance care planning
• Complex decision-making support
• Coordination of care across multiple specialties and services

• Overnight call is taken Monday through Thursday while assigned to the inpatient service.
• No overnight call is required on Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays.
• Fellows on the inpatient service round on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of each block.
• Fellows who are not assigned to the inpatient service do not participate in inpatient call or weekend rounding.
• Equitable holiday coverage will be assigned based on faculty coverage (average of 3-4 days per year)
   

Fellows spend dedicated time with Iowa City Hospice under the supervision of experienced hospice physicians.

This rotation provides immersive exposure to community-based serious illness care through:

• Management of a personal panel of hospice patients
• Home visits and facility-based care
• Symptom management in the community setting
• Participation in weekly interdisciplinary team (IDT) meetings
• Exposure to respite and General Inpatient (GIP) hospice care within hospital settings

The hospice experience emphasizes longitudinal patient relationships and the unique challenges of caring for patients and families across the end-of-life continuum.

Working with inpatient addiction medicine specialists allows fellows to:

• Recognize and evaluate opioid use disorder
• Better understand substance use disorders
• Develop skills in complex pain management
• Navigate the intersection of addiction and serious illness care

Working with excellent outpatient oncologist, fellows will gain a deeper understanding of:

• Cancer-directed therapies with related symptoms
• Oncology treatment planning
• Prognostic appreciation 
• Collaboration between oncology and palliative medicine teams