Barriers Perceived By Palliative Care Fellowships in Training Physicians From Diverse Specialties

Hospice and Palliative Medicine (HPM) fellowships may train fellows from thirteen medical specialties, but 90% of recent graduates were from Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, or Pediatrics. Fellows from the other specialties may have distinct barriers to successful training. Little is currently known about fellowship programs' perceived readiness to train this more diverse group of palliative care specialists.

This study aims to better understand barriers to training HPM fellows from non-traditional specialties, specifically from the program director's perspective.

We conducted a cross-sectional, web-based survey of HPM fellowship program leaders. The survey included both closed- and open-ended questions. It assessed program characteristics, the training backgrounds of program leadership, faculty, and recent graduates, and perceived barriers to training fellows from each non-traditional background.

Seventy-nine program leaders completed our survey of 188 fellowship programs in the United States. Nearly all program leaders trained in traditional specialty backgrounds. Nineteen percent of programs reported training zero non-traditional fellows in the past five years, and 34% of programs reported having no faculty from non-traditional specialties. The most common barriers cited to training fellows from non-traditional specialties were weak mentorship support, insufficient trainee medical knowledge, inadequate training for the ages of patients seen, and lack of experience with outpatient care.

Our study underscores the need for more robust mentorship and programmatic support for HPM fellowship leaders when training fellows from non-traditional specialties. Identifying ways to better support programs in training these fellows may help expand the HPM workforce.