Core Addiction Skills Training in Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowships: A National Survey

Hospice and palliative medicine (HPM) clinicians increasingly care for patients with serious illness and prolonged opioid exposure, yet often report limited training managing consequences like opioid misuse or opioid use disorder (OUD). Little is known about core addiction skills training in HPM physician fellowships.

To describe current training in core addiction skills for HPM fellows, identify barriers to curricular expansion, and characterize fellowship program director (PD) perspectives and priorities.

Cross-sectional national survey of PDs from ACGME-accredited HPM fellowships in the United States assessing core addiction skills training, PD perspectives, and curricular challenges and priorities.

Of 160 eligible programs, 79 PDs responded (49.4%). Most PDs rated addiction training as highly relevant (86%) and important (75%) to HPM practice. PDs perceived that fellows have low confidence with opioid misuse or OUD, despite commonly encountering such patients. Most programs offered limited training (2-3 hours), though many provided electives. Fewer than 20% of programs had faculty with formal addiction training, and 25% reported no faculty with buprenorphine experience. The most frequently cited barriers to curricular expansion were limited faculty expertise in addiction and buprenorphine, and competing curricular priorities. While foundational skills were commonly addressed, PDs identified curricular development priorities including: buprenorphine use, pain management in OUD, and motivational interviewing.

Despite broad recognition of the importance of core addiction skills, a shortage of faculty expertise constrains education in HPM physician fellowships. Scalable, technology-enabled, shared curricular approaches may help expand access to expertise and better align training with clinical demands.