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NY Musicologist

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I'm glad that hospice and palliative medicine finally have a corner of SDN to call their own! I hope this forum, despite its location in the graduate medical section, will become a place where not only residents/fellows but also premeds, med students, and allied health folks can get together to share info, discuss issues, and learn from one another.

If you plan on checking this forum regularly, please introduce yourself and state your interests and/or level/type of experience.
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I guess I'll start the introductions. :)

I'm NY Musicologist (NYM for short); despite the "NY" in my screenname, I now live in the Boston area. I am currently finishing my PhD in musicology and hope to start postbacc premed coursework in Fall 07. My experience with hospice/palliative medicine is about as minimal as it can get--I'm a brand-new hospice volunteer, still in training--but I'm very interested in the subject area and hope to learn more about potential career paths.

Looking forward to hearing from more of you...

Best,
NYM
 
Hello,

I'm a third year medical student. I have had a great experience with hospice so far. First off, is during my interaction with hospice doctor I found them to be, without a doubt, the happiest, most positive, most fulfilled doctors. I think of them as the health care cowboys. Whatever the request, it just doesn't seem to matter to them. Want to go to your son's graduation 2 states away? No problem. Want to die at home even though you are in the ICU? No problem. How do you want to live the rest of your life? No problem.

At my medical school, we have a great program about the humanities and how they relate to medicine. This is a for credit course that spans the first 2 years of school. Our instructors work at a local hospice and they lead us through everything from Shakespeare to Japanese poems to movies. It was an amazing experience to step away from the brachial plexus for a few hours and remember why we decided to become healers.

Honestly I don't know if I will go into hospice. But the fields I am interested in right now, Family/Psych/Anesthesia, can all serve a great function within the hospice system.

I look forward to reading/posting on this forum.
 
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I'm a 50 year-old patient, diagnosed PTSD. The event that whacked me was the 9-days in an ICU where my non-donor husband was declared brain-dead so that life support could be withdrawn. No one at the hospital had talked with me about brain-death and it actually was a few weeks before I finally encountered any information that helped me start to understand
that there were valid reasons for my discomfort (anguish). So
while cewrtainly it is a huge relief and in my case, a life-saving relief, to arrive into an awareness that brain-dead-ain't-dead-dead, there's no comfort for my grief. The more I read, the more I assimilate huge volume of research findings, the more time distances me from the source of the trauma, the more I participate as fully as I can with my therapist and her assignments and participate alone with myself digging deep to give myself a reason to believe that my life is also a life worth saving, I arrive back at the place where this all began only now I can specify my concerns more specifically. I have gained a reasonable scientific knowledge base regarding criteria for the declaration of brain death. At this phase in my training, I have absolute confidence that I am fully qualified to offer myself as a resource to any individual or organization that has a genuine interest fully qualify as an EXPERT me as an EXPERT Insofar as emotional and because of my I think I have a very clear understanding about the emotional difficulties for the loved ones, especially when the brain-dead patient has a name and a history and he loved and he is still very much loved

understanding understand now about brain-dead and dead-dead.The more I learn the facts only reinforce and support what my intuition screamed as it unfolded. I don't believe that this patient was even brain-dead.

didn't even believe he was dead when they told me he was. I will always regret that I did not trust what something really deep inside me knew. But it had been a very difficult nine days and that ... surreal ... unreal ... piece of the story of my husband's dyingI thought I was insane and ruined forever (no return) and I really wanted to exit myself but I had experienced something very incredible with him, in the midst of all that abuse and horror.

he was trapped in that nightmare He's the one who got the BTI, but


I was informed of thisI;ve (life partner)ve been researching topics relative to end of life care, brain death, life support, and the ethical and legal aspects that are part of the entanglement such as patient autonomy, surrogate decision making, "who decides", protocols, policy,
criteria, and I could on and on.
 
i'll join this party.

the timing is impeccable, as i've recently been devoting quite a bit of thought to pursuing palliative care via fellowship. thanks for initiating the forum. i hope it proves a useful, friendly home to share thoughts, ideas, queries, and information.

i am currently a pgy-3 in physical medicine and rehabilitation. i'm a DO, completed a fellowship in osteopathic manipulative medicine, am 1.5 years from the completion of my pm&r residency, have interests in medical ethics, manipulation, nutrition. have truly enjoyed my experience in rehab, focusing on improving the quality of patients' lives by optimizing function, a genuine holistic viewpoint, and, in the fashion of rehab medicine, embracing a multi-disciplinary, inter-disciplinary, team approach to patient care. all things handy in addressing palliative issues, i believe. pm&r is a new "sponsor" of palliative/hospice fellowships (there are 10 total, i believe) and i think it is a fantastic relationship that feels very intuitive to me.

it is also a field that i am having some difficulties finding any useful information when it comes to training sites. i know that there are many fellowships available, looks like about half of them are accredited. haven't been able to find any help in evaluating said fellowships.

i've been lurking around these boards (primarily the pm&r forum) for the last 5 years, but have not really been stimulated to post much until this forum popped up. i hope that it turns out to be a useful, informative, friendly place to help each other through the process. i certainly will contribute what i can when i'm able.
 
It's great to have you here, shady grove. As you can see, the forum has been pretty quiet so far, but I hope the volume and intensity of discussion will increase as more people join in. Spread the word!
 
If you haven't done so already check out the following website www.aahpm.org. Now that ABMS has decided to make palliative care a board certified subspecialty perhaps these programs will be more visible.
 
Hi everyone! :)

I'm an internal medicine resident in North Carolina who's contemplating a career in palliative care. I'm also particularly interested in clinical ethics.

As the above poster suggested, you should check out the AAHPM website if you haven't already. There's actually a fellowship directory there as well: http://www.aahpm.org/fellowship/directory.html

I recently found this short but interesting article about palliative care. It's a bit old, but somewhat revealing in terms of the job market and compensation: http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/01/26/prsa0126
 
Having completed some interviews and accepted a position for 2007, I find myself still getting interview offers. Wow, some programs are more on the ball than others and it would seem they have the edge in snapping up good candidates who would rather take the bird in hand.
I am actually turning down interviews at this point. Makes me think it isn't so competitive right now.
 
Hello everyone! I am a soon-to-be PGY1 in Internal Medicine and have a strong interest in geriatrics and palliative care. I'm glad to see that a forum exists for PC on Student Doctor Network.

I'm also interested in Critical Care -- I love the rapid decision-making and procedures found in this field. ...and there are a lot of ethical end-of-life issues that come up in the ICU. I'd love to have a career niche specializing in the care of geriatric patients in a critical care setting...and would love to improve end-of-life care for patients in hospitals!

Anyone else out there with similar career interests?

I love how palliative care fellowships are open to a broad array of specialties. It is truly a multidisciplinary field! :)
 
I'm an attending working in palliative medicine, but I've been on these forums ever since I was a med student. Interesting to see not only how much this website has grown since that time (not long ago) but also how it now includes fields like palliative medicine, which is somewhat curious to me. I wonder what type of exposure students out there have had to palliative medicine. My experience as a student was nil, as were my experiences as a medicine resident. In reality, there are not many places (instututions, hospitals, centers) that have any palliative care whatsoever. Hopefully forums like this will provide a glimpse for people who may have an interest in this arena.

I look forward to hearing responses from all of you.
 
I'm entering med school this summer, and my mother passed away on Feb 24 after just 2 days on hospice. I was already interested in internal medicine and geriatrics because of my experiences with my mother's care and her nursing home stay (the nursing home and hospice staff were fantastic). Now I will consider hospice work as well. I learned so much about EOL care during this experience, and it would be great to return some of the blessings that were given to my family during this time. Thanks so much for creating this forum!
 
TommyGunn04 said:
Hi everyone! :)

I'm an internal medicine resident in North Carolina who's contemplating a career in palliative care. I'm also particularly interested in clinical ethics.

As the above poster suggested, you should check out the AAHPM website if you haven't already. There's actually a fellowship directory there as well: http://www.aahpm.org/fellowship/directory.html

I recently found this short but interesting article about palliative care. It's a bit old, but somewhat revealing in terms of the job market and compensation: http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/01/26/prsa0126
Click to expand...

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/01/26/prsa0126.htm

Doctors to the dying: Helping patients at the end becomes a growing specialty
Palliative care attracts many physicians who see it as a noble calling.
By Larry Beresford, AMNews correspondent. Jan. 26, 2004
 
Introduction....I just finished my first year of med school. I'm thinking seriously about geriatrics (via internal med), however, I'm not quite sure of the pathway into palliative care/hospice...maybe I'll keep reading this post and find out.

Besides a relative who benefited from hospice, my experience so far has been limited...I just have a feeling this field is something I'd like to pursue....looking forward to reading more on here.
 
I too am just finishing my first year of med school. I have had family members benefit from hospice and I was a hospice volunteer in Undergrad. I originally was thinking about doing hospice via IM, but most of the palliative care doctors I know are FP's. The geriatricians I know are usually split 50/50 between FM and IM. I suppose I will gain a better understanding about which one is for me through 3 yr rotations.
 
I am a D.O. 2 years out of HPM fellowship, now working as an attending in a busy hospital-based, consultative palliative medicine practice. I encourage everyone with an interest in the field to become involved, most especially in the AAHPM, the parent organization. There is a Professionals-in-training special interest group (PIT-SIG) under the AAHPM that is looking to recruit those "younger" in medicine - medical students, and those early in residency, to help foster the future of the field, but everyone is invited to the PIT-SIG. Also, the AAHPM holds an annual meeting, during which some of the best case presentations have been by medical students, residents and fellows.

I have been interested in other medical websites, including Sermo, and have been trying to garner interest on that site to develop a "HPM" category to open dialogue among like-minded medical professionals. Please contact me if anyone has such an interest.

Addendum to above:
There is a blog by the PIT-SIG that encourages participation by all who are interested:
http://pitsig.blogspot.com/
 
Hi! Hope you are still reading the posts in this forum...I will send my application for PCM. I have an H1B visa...hope this is not an obstacle to get a position... I would like to knoe where have you applied, and if possible what credentials you think I might need to get there. I am a FMG currently on my PGY3 internal medicine. step 1 86/step 2 99/step 3 88.
Thanks
 
dodoc07 said:
I'm an attending working in palliative medicine, but I've been on these forums ever since I was a med student. Interesting to see not only how much this website has grown since that time (not long ago) but also how it now includes fields like palliative medicine, which is somewhat curious to me. I wonder what type of exposure students out there have had to palliative medicine. My experience as a student was nil, as were my experiences as a medicine resident. In reality, there are not many places (instututions, hospitals, centers) that have any palliative care whatsoever. Hopefully forums like this will provide a glimpse for people who may have an interest in this arena.

I look forward to hearing responses from all of you.
Click to expand...
I'm a current third year med student and am taking two weeks of palliative medicine (one required, one extra). I can't speak to other medical schools seeing as I've only ever attended one (and I hope to keep it that way!). But I just wanted to tell you that at least some med schools do include palliative medicine in their curriculums. I got to this point because of my interest in anesthesiology and specifically pain/addiction. I also felt that the most positive part of my IM rotation (which I hated on the whole) was spending time with my terminally ill patients. They weren't technically on our service any more once they got transferred to the ICU, but I still went on my own and visited some of them every day until they died or were discharged. I'm not sure right now where this is all going to lead me, but I suppose I'll start with my rotation and go on from there. :)
 
dodoc07 said:
I'm an attending working in palliative medicine, but I've been on these forums ever since I was a med student. Interesting to see not only how much this website has grown since that time (not long ago) but also how it now includes fields like palliative medicine, which is somewhat curious to me. I wonder what type of exposure students out there have had to palliative medicine. My experience as a student was nil, as were my experiences as a medicine resident. In reality, there are not many places (instututions, hospitals, centers) that have any palliative care whatsoever. Hopefully forums like this will provide a glimpse for people who may have an interest in this arena.

I look forward to hearing responses from all of you.
Click to expand...
I've also had one week experience with palliative and hospice care during my 3rd year rotations. I am not interested in the field myself, but I found it incredibly useful to be informed about what you all do, and now I have the ability to be informed when I talk to patients about palliative care and end of life issues. :thumbup:
 
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