Medical Student & Resident Resources

Hospice care is specialized care focused on comfort and quality of life for patients with a serious illness who are approaching end of life. Hospice care is typically provided when life expectancy is six months or less. In hospice care, treatments that enhance comfort are prioritized, while treatments aimed at controlling or reversing the condition are often stopped.

Palliative care is specialized medical care for people living with a serious illness. This type of care is focused on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of the illness. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family.

Palliative care is provided by a specially-trained team of doctors, nurses, social workers, chaplains, and other specialists who work together with a patient’s other doctors to provide an extra layer of support. Palliative care is based on the needs of the patient, not on the patient’s prognosis. It is appropriate at any age and at any stage in a serious illness, and it can be provided along with curative treatment.

Physicians specializing in hospice and palliative medicine (HPM) provide care to patients and families as they face the challenges of living with a serious illness. These physicians improve patients’ quality of life by treating pain and other symptoms, attending to patients’ coping and emotional concerns, and facilitating discussions about patients’ goals and values. Studies indicate that individuals can even live longer when they receive palliative care along with with other disease-directed treatments.

Hospice and palliative medicine is a distinct specialty that collaborates with all areas of medicine, reshaping how healthcare teams tackle complex clinical, psychosocial, spiritual, and existential aspects of care. Hospice and palliative medicine physicians take a comprehensive approach to patient advocacy within intricate medical systems, fostering equity and inclusion.

Hospice and palliative medicine is a rapidly expanding field where physicians can significantly influence their healthcare organizations. Those who work in HPM are change-makers, with numerous opportunities for clinical innovation, education, research, and leadership.

Working as a physician in the context of serious illness and end-of-life care is both challenging and rewarding. It involves facing profound personal and philosophical questions daily and guiding patients through some of life’s most critical moments. Hospice and palliative medicine physicians also find it important to maintain healthy boundaries, recognize their limitations and vulnerabilities, and find sources of meaning and joy inside and outside of the workday.

A career in HPM requires fellowship training after residency—typically one year in length—after which physicians in the following specialties are eligible for board certification:

• Anesthesiology
• Emergency Medicine
• Family Medicine
• Internal Medicine
• Neurology
• Obstetrics and Gynecology
• Pediatrics
• Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
• Psychiatry
• Radiation Oncology
• Surgery

For additional details, visit AAHPM’s Clinical Training page.

Hospice and palliative medicine physicians provide care in various settings, including hospitals, hospices, outpatient clinics, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities, catering to both adult and pediatric patients. Some practice in academic environments, while others focus on community care, visiting patients at home or through telemedicine. Effective palliative care relies on a team effort, typically involving physicians, nurses, social workers, and other specialists. Additionally, palliative medicine doctors frequently take on managerial or director roles in different healthcare organizations.

There are a multitude of career paths open to HPM physicians:

• In the hospital, HPM physicians may work on a consult service, supporting patients with complex symptom management and navigating difficult decision-making and conversations. They may also directly supervise patients in Palliative Care Units at some centers.
• Many HPM physicians follow a panel of patients in an outpatient clinic. Often this involves close collaboration with other specialties, such as oncology and neurology, who have patients with serious illness and have many palliative care needs (symptom management, decision-making support, etc.)
• HPM physicians may also work primarily with patients residing at home or a facility, as part of a community-based palliative care program or hospice. While working in hospice, HPM physicians may deliver care in an inpatient hospice unit, or have an opportunity for greater oversight of the organization’s clinical care or administration.

One of the best ways to learn more is to join AAHPM! Membership is free for students and residents, and it comes with benefits:

• Access to online learning materials and news updates related to HPM
• Opportunities to network and hear from communities within HPM using the AAHPM Connect online forum

Join AAHPM today!

• PC-FACS (Fast Article Critical Summaries for Clinicians in Palliative Care) 
• Primer of Palliative Care, 7th Edition
• Palliative Care Fast Facts
• Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
• Mastering Communication with Seriously Ill Patients: Balancing Honesty with Empathy and Hope by Robert Arnold, Anthony Back and James Tulksy
• The Best Care Possible by Ira Byock
• The Four Things that Matter Most by Ira Byock
• Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
• Grief on the Front Lines: Reckoning with Trauma, Grief, and Humanity in Modern Medicine by Rachel Jones
• When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

• AAHPM Blog
• Courageous Parents Network
• GeriPal
• Pallimed
• PediPal
• PalliEM

• AAHPM
• AAHPM Early Career Professionals SIG
• Palliative-Care-Academic
• Hashtag to follow/use: HPM
• Hashtag to follow/use: HAPC