Fellowship Education

Diverse Clinical Experiences

Our three hospital system exposes fellows to a diverse patient population within different clinical environments

In addition to three core clinical inpatient sites for Pallaitive Care Service rotations, all fellows participate in an interdisciplinary continuity clinic at the VA or at UCLA Santa Monica. Additional unique outpatient clinic experiences are available during elective time, including embedded neuro-palliative and oncology clinics.

Didactic Series
Our program teaches fellows key topics in hospice and palliative care through a weekly formal didactics series that includes workshops, case reviews, and board review questions. Presenters include faculty from within the UCLA and VA health systems and guest lecturers from local and national institutions. Faculty members have expertise in Palliative Care, Hospice Care, Geriatrics, Cardiology, Hematology and Oncology, Neurology, Radiation Oncology, Interventional Pain, Ethics, Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and more.

This didactic series is inter-professional including social work, spiritual care, nursing and pharmacy faculty and learners.

Fellow Reflection Group

Fellows meet in a weekly reflection group, facilitated by our palliative care social worker and chaplain. This group not only fosters an environment of inclusion, but also promotes wellness and resiliency throughout the year.

Journal Club
Fellows and faculty members are asked to critically review and discuss seminal historical and current articles relevant to Hospice and Palliative Care.

Research Opportunities

Fellows are asked to complete a scholarly project during their fellowship year. Scholarly projects may be related to quality improvement, education development, community outreach, or research. Fellows are paired with a mentor to support them with their academic work.

Our faculty are interested in a variety of research areas, including the integration of palliative care and specialty services such as oncology and neurology, reviews of specialized palliative care therapies, and evaluating and improving end of life care practices.

Fellows have the opportunity to present their projects to faculty and staff at the Annual UCLA Hospice and Palliative Medicine Research Day.

We also offer additional options for training:

• 2-year Advanced Fellowships in Research and/or Quality Improvement
• 2-year Geriatric and Palliative Medicine Fellowship
• Advanced degrees in collaboration with the UCLA STAR Program

Conferences
We strongly encourage all our fellows to attend the AAHPM Annual Assembly or an alternative conference of the fellow's choice.