► Meet Our Fellows

Clinical Training

Required clinical training includes rotations at inpatient palliative care programs, community-based programs, and ambulatory care programs.

Inpatient Palliative Care Training

Rotations are offered at a local hospice inpatient unit (IPU) run by a community hospice program, a hospice IPU run by the Robley Rex Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC), and palliative care consult services located at both an academic medical center and at the VAMC. Fellows spend a total of eight (8) months assigned to an IPU or consult service. This approach provides fellows with exposure to three different patient populations: inpatients admitted to a community hospice IPU with acute care needs; VAMC IPU and palliative care consult patients; and patients receiving palliative care consultation at an academic training hospital that is a Level 1 trauma center.

Community Care

Fellows are required to complete a rotation with the VAMC Home-Based Primary Care (HBPC) Program seeing patients in need of palliative care consultation or assigned to community hospice care. Additionally, fellows perform adult and pediatric home visits through the local community hospice and work with Kourageous Kids interdisciplinary pediatric palliative care and hospice team. While assigned to the palliative care long-term care month, fellows rotate with two board certified hospice and palliative care physicians who see palliative care consults and hospice patients at several local long-term care facilities.

Ambulatory Care

Fellows have a year-long continuity clinic experience, occurring one half-day per week. Six months are spent in the VAMC Palliative Care Clinic where the fellows and a comprehensive interdisciplinary team perform palliative care consultations. The other six months are spent in the UofL James Graham Brown Cancer Center Supportive Care Clinic with an attending physician, nurse clinician and chaplain.

Educational Conferences

Fellows are required to participate in weekly conferences throughout the year. Our interdisciplinary conferences consist of two hours of the following activities: lectures addressing core palliative care concepts, case reviews, journal clubs, and self-care.

Accreditation

The University of Louisville Palliative Medicine Fellowship is accredited Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

Program Partners

Four organizations, University of Louisville School of Medicine, University of Louisville Hospital, Louisville Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and Hosparus work together to provide a comprehensive clinical education program for physicians seeking specialty training in hospice and palliative medicine. Information on program partners may be found on the Participating Clinical Sites link on this site.