Hospice & Palliative Fellowship program facts

The Aurora Hospice & Palliative Fellowship aims to ensure our trainees are equipped to competently and consistently:

• Provide comprehensive assessment and management of patients' suffering and quality of life, across all areas of care.
• Care for a diverse range of chronically ill patients across the life cycle.
• Adhere to the highest level of medical ethics while dealing with stressful situations and grieving families.
• Develop expertise in pain and symptom management of patients with serious, potentially life-threatening medical illnesses.
• Embrace a culture of patient- and family-centered care.
• Facilitate discharge planning for patients with complex needs and assist families with decision-making regarding long-term care.
• Lead and facilitate discussions with patients and their families regarding goals of care, advanced care planning and withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy.
• Provide counseling to families and caregivers throughout the dying process and during bereavement.
• Collaborate with an interdisciplinary team, including physicians in other sub-specialties, APNPs and RNs, physical therapists, chaplains and others.

Fellows in our 12-month program will see a high volume and variety of patients, ensuring a diverse and comprehensive clinical experience. In addition to ample impatient exposure at two of our metro campuses, our fellows will complete services alongside specialists in home hospice, inpatient hospice, long-term care and inpatient or ambulatory pediatric palliative care.

Our fellows are also allotted one month for research/scholarly activity and one month to pursue a service of interest. Aside from their elective and pediatric service, our fellows come together every Wednesday afternoon for continuity clinic.

Didactics

Regular didactics include:

• Noon conference – once a week
• Medical Director rounds (inpatient hospice service) – once a week
• Interdisciplinary team meetings (inpatient hospice service) – once a week
• Wellness huddle (Inpatient at Aurora St. Luke's service) – once a week
• Ethics committee (inpatient and inpatient hospice services) – case-by-case pending
• Transitional care meetings (inpatient services) – twice a week

Additional educational activities include:

• Resiliency and self-care retreat – Three half-days per academic year.
• Mock boards – One half-day per academic year, just prior to graduation.
• Boot camp – First two weeks of the academic year. Fellows will be provided with the foundational basis of core Hospice and Palliative Medicine topics. Fellows will also be introduced to a variety of potential research topics and will be given these two weeks to start exploring their research topic(s) of interest with the assistance of research-based faculty.

Our fellows receive a generous budget to attend regional and national conferences. Fellows are expected to attend at least one national conference (Center to Advance Palliative Care Conference and/or American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine).

Practice sites

Our fellows have the opportunity to train at numerous inpatient, long-term care, palliative care and inpatient hospice locations.

Learn about practice sites

Salary & benefits

The Aurora Hospice & Palliative Fellowship offers a competitive salary, comprehensive health coverage for you and your eligible dependents and many other perks.

View salary & benefits [PDF]

Apply to the fellowship

Learn how to apply to the Aurora Hospice & Palliative Fellowship program. Get information about candidate requirements and the application process.

Apply to Hospice & Palliative Fellowship program