Goals for Graduates:
Goal #1
Serve as palliative care champions in their work setting and community.
Goal #2
Provide primary palliative care for people living with serious illness in any pharmacy practice setting.
Goal #3
Be prepared to pursue advanced post-graduate clinical training to specialize in the care of people with serious illness.
Palliative Care Certificate Course
Foundations of Palliative Care
This 2 credit-hour course introduces palliative care as a public health issue and provides exploration of the principles and practice of palliative care, including interdisciplinary care of the whole person and family, communication, and self-care.
Offered: Spring Semester
Open to students in the P1, P2, P3 year
Ethics & Spirituality in Healthcare
This 3 credit-hour case-based course examines ethical issues in caring for patients with serious illness and explores suffering, spirituality, death, and dying.
Offered: Fall Semester
Open to students in the P2, P3 year
Advanced Pharmacopalliation
This 5 credit-hour advanced pharmacotherapy course explores symptom management across the trajectory of serious illness through a series of longitudinal patient cases examining advanced heart disease, renal disease, HIV/AIDS, lung disease, neurocognitive disease, and cancer. Highlighted topics include discontinuing life sustaining therapies, pharmacokinetic and pharmaceutic issues in advanced illness, terminal agitation, and wound management.
Offered: Selective/APPE block 1
Open to students in the P3 year
Continuing Professional Development in Palliative Care
This 1 credit-hour longitudinal course fosters self-directed learning and development in palliative care among pharmacy students. Students will create and implement a professional development plan to include 10 hours of activities in each of the following professional development areas: service, scholarship & education, leadership & advocacy and self-care & personal resilience. Reflections are required for each palliative care professional development activity completed.
Sample activities in each area include, but are not limited to:
Service:
- Volunteer in a hospice or palliative care program
- Volunteer at an addiction treatment facility
- Volunteer at a geriatric long-term care facility
Scholarship & Education:
- Conduct a research project related to palliative care or symptom management
- Write a scholarly article related to palliative care
- Participate in up to 2 palliative care journal clubs per year.
- Develop educational materials related to palliative care for patients, caregivers, and/or other healthcare professionals
Leadership & Advocacy:
- Serve in a leadership role for a professional organization related to pain management of palliative care
- Attend a professional meeting related to pain management or palliative care (e.g. Midwest Pain Society, American Academy of Hospice & Palliative Medicine)
- Deliver an poster or oral presentation related to palliative care at a professional meeting
- Organize a letter-writing campaign to advocate for palliative care
Self-Care & Resilience:
- Complete a mindfulness class
- Practice mindfulness
- Develop a personal resilience plan and discuss it with your mentor
- Attend a seminar on self-care and personal resilience
- Attend the Examine Life conference
- Participate in a Palliative Care book club
- Participate in journaling or reflective writing
Each student will work with a palliative care faculty advisor to review and update the individualized Continuing Professional Development (CPD) plan each semester. Students may not count activities in this course toward any other PharmD curriculum requirement.
Offered: begin after acceptance into Palliative Care certificate; credit awarded Spring of P3 year.
Open to all students in Palliative Care Certificate program.