Palliative Care Education in the Family Medicine Clerkship: A CERA Study

Inadequate training of medical students in palliative care has been identified as a barrier to its universal provision. Family medicine physicians frequently provide these services, yet the extent of palliative care training in the family medicine clerkship has been unknown. This study describes the status of palliative care training in the family medicine clerkship, as well as clerkship director perceptions of this training.

Data were attained through a cross-sectional survey of 141 US and Canadian family medicine clerkship directors administered in fall 2016. Survey items included clerkship director perceived value, interest, and background in palliative care education; presence of educational objectives; hours of training provided; and perceived barriers to palliative care instruction.

Of the clerkship directors who responded (120/141, 81.5%), 31 (25.8%) reported providing no palliative care education and 75 (62.5%) reported palliative care competencies were not specifically assessed. Background in palliative care and explicit educational objectives were associated with more hours of training in palliative care. Clerkship director training in palliative care correlated with value of teaching it in the clerkship.

Palliative care education in the family medicine clerkship is prevalent but a large portion of clerkships do not offer it, and the majority of clerkship directors do not evaluate this learning. Our study found a positive correlation between clerkship director training in palliative care and value placed on palliative training in the family medicine clerkship. Assessing this training in the family medicine clerkship and pursuing additional clerkship director training in the subject could improve the overall quality of education provided.