Staying Connected: A Longitudinal, Multisite, Interprofessional Rural Fellowship Collaboration

Four interprofessional hospice and palliative medicine (HPM) fellowship programs in rural northern New England states created an in-person educational retreat series.

The goal of the series was to maximize shared educational resources and foster community amongst faculty and fellows, in an upstream attempt to improve recruitment/retention of clinicians in three rural states with inadequate access to specialty palliative care.

We organized three retreats per year starting in 2022. Each rural state hosted one retreat focused on a theme: 1) fundamental skills for HPM fellows, 2) advanced serious illness communication skills, and 3) leadership skills. Interprofessional faculty across the four programs co-taught sessions. Participating fellows and faculty were surveyed after the first two years to assess whether retreats met objectives.

39 fellows and faculty completed the survey (17/22 fellows and 22/41 faculty; response rate 62%). At least 88% of fellows rated the retreats effective in strengthening their clinical, communication, teamwork, and leadership skills. The majority of faculty (72%) felt the retreats had a positive impact on their teaching. Over four-fifths of faculty and fellows felt the retreats increased their sense of belonging and decreased professional isolation. The retreats were a top factor influencing fellowship choice for 29% of fellows, as well as a major incentive to remain practicing in the region for 32% of faculty.

A series of in-person interprofessional educational retreats developed by four rural HPM fellowships strengthened fellow education, created connections among regional faculty and fellows, and were positively associated with fellow and faculty recruitment and retention.