Museum-Based Education: A Novel Educational Approach for Hospice and Palliative Medicine Training Programs

To describe museum-based education (MBE) as an emerging pedagogy in our four hospice and palliative medicine (HPM) training programs. MBE is a pedagogy that uses art and the museum space to promote a variety of skills, including reflective practice, self-awareness, and interprofessional teamwork. While MBE has been extensively applied and studied in undergraduate medical education, it is not a common educational strategy in HPM education. We summarize the characteristics of MBE initiatives in our institutions, including makeup of fellowship class, MBE site, facilitators, exercises, number of sessions, number of years using MBE, and expenses and funding to support MBE in our training programs. To date, we have used MBE to train 104 HPM fellows. Evaluations from MBE have been overwhelmingly positive. MBE holds great promise as a pedagogic strategy to improve metacognition, tolerance of uncertainty, appreciation of multiple perspectives, and teamwork among hospice and palliative care professionals. Further research is needed to identify best practices for MBE across HPM training programs.