Institutionalization of a palliative and end-of-life care educational program in a medical school curriculum

Stimulated by support from an R25 grant from the National Cancer Institute, we assembled a multidisciplinary team to design, implement, evaluate, and institutionalize in our medical school curriculum a training program to enable all students to graduate with basic competency in palliative and end-of-life care. In the fall of 1994, we reviewed the medical curriculum extensively to determine the need and optimal sites for integration of new educational modules. The freshman and junior years were found most suitable for our purposes; hence, behavioral objectives targeted at the freshman and junior medical student as learner were designed for the domain of palliative and end-of-life care. By 1996, negotiations with the medical school curriculum committee and with individual course masters secured permission and time allotments to include new coursework as required elements. We integrated approximately 20 hours of required training into the medical school curriculum, accomplished by modules that utilized small group learning, didactic presentations, out-of-classroom assignments, and practicum/experiential teaching methods. Freshman year curriculum consisted of a 3-hour module that considers the role of the physician in end-of-life care. Junior year training included a 1-hour module on advance directives and a 16-hour classroom and practicum course on hospice and end-of-life care. Performance-based assessment revealed that the students achieved the behavioral objectives. Furthermore, the students perceived benefit from the training and concluded that palliative care education should be a required part of their medical school experience. In September 2000, the medical school's Clinical Years Committee officially designated the palliative and end-of-life care training modules a mandatory part of the curriculum, with satisfactory completion a requirement for graduation.