About Our Program

Program Mission:

The mission of the OHSU Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship program is to develop expert hospice and palliative medicine physicians with the knowledge and skill to lead the advancement of compassionate, interprofessional, patient and family-centered, culturally competent care for seriously ill individuals. 

Our Program Aims:

Our program aims to:

1. Create a supportive and inclusive and diverse interprofessional environment where fellows’ well-being and professional development are our greatest priority.
2. Train physicians from a variety of cultural and clinical backgrounds, who will excel as clinicians and educators, to help improve both primary and subspecialty palliative care across the healthcare continuum.
3. Develop trainees with expert communication skills who can offer compassionate care for seriously ill individuals that is all culturally humble, patient- and family-centered, and interdisciplinary in nature.
4. Educate physician leaders who are well prepared to succeed in a variety of practice settings including community and academic medicine.

Our Program Offerings:

Our Program Offerings:

• A 12-month, ACGME accredited Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship. All graduates of our fellowship program who demonstrate competence in the six ACGME Core Competencies will be eligible to sit for board certification in hospice and palliative medicine.
• Two educational tracks:
  • Adult track training for two fellows per year. This track is ideal for physicians interested practicing Hospice and Palliative Medicine for seriously ill adult patients.
  • Pediatric Track training for one fellow per year. This track is ideal for physicians interested in practicing Hospice and Palliative Medicine for serious ill children. This track is offered in collaboration with Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.
• Exposure to a variety of practice settings, including academic, community, and VA settings.   
• Fully interprofessional training program through a partnership with the Portland Veterans Health Care System’s Interprofessional Palliative Care Fellowship Program, which is one of only six VA sponsored interprofessional fellowship programs in the country. Physician fellows interact with palliative care fellows from other professional disciplines (which can include social work, psychology, pharmacy, nursing and chaplaincy) during VA consult rotations, continuity clinic, and didactics.

Our Team:

Our core faculty are critical to the success of our fellowship program’s mission and aims. As we believe that interprofessional training is essential to the practice of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, our core faculty team includes both physician non-physician core faculty. 

Educational Offerings

_{Clinical Experiences}

Our program offers a robust clinical experience in a variety of practice settings.  At the conclusion of the training program, fellows from both the pediatric and adult tracks are prepared to enter an academic or community-based hospice and palliative medicine practice.

Clinical Sites

• Portland VA Medical Center and VA Community Living Center
• Oregon Health and Science University
• Legacy Hospice
• Doernbecher Children’s Hospital

Sample Schedules
The clinical schedule is comprised of 12 one-month rotations.  

Adult Track

Pediatric Track

_{Educational Curriculum}

Fellows participate in a robust educational curriculum to supplement clinical learning through self-guided learning, didactics, small group discussions, and simulation.

Fellows have protected time for structured learning activities and scholarship during all rotations, including:

• One-half day per week protected for academic time including interprofessional didactics and work on scholarly projects.
• One hour per week protected for Palliative Care Grand Rounds

The educational curriculum is further divided into mini-curriculums for focused learning that spans the course of the academic year. 

• Serious Illness Communication mini-curriculum (based on the VitalTalk teaching method)
• Psychosocial mini-curriculum
• Ethics mini-curriculum
• Diversity/Equity/Inclusion mini-curriculum
• Addiction medicine mini-curriculum
• Clinician-Educator mini-curriculum
• Quality and Safety mini-curriculum

We offer additional educational experiences in:

• Journal Club presentations
• Teaching of students in both formal courses and on clinical rotations
• Scholarship through quality improvement projects

Application Process

Fellow Selection

Our Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program is committed to creating a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming training environment. We value individual differences and perspectives as a way to grow and stimulate learning.   

We do not discriminate with regard to culture and racial/ethnic background, gender, age, sexual identity, religion, physical appearance, socioeconomic status, or veteran status.

Additionally, we are welcoming of applicants from a variety of clinical backgrounds, including all ten co-sponsoring boards.

Fellows are selected based upon their:

• Interpersonal and teamwork skills
• Communication skills
• Dedication to lifelong learning
• Professionalism and personal qualities such as motivation and integrity
• Spirit of Curiosity
• Cultural Sensitivity and Awareness

Eligibility

To be eligible for the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship, you must have completed an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-accredited or Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC)-accredited program in child neurology, family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, physical medicine and rehabilitation, or neurology; or you must have completed at least three clinical years in an ACGME- or RCPSC-accredited graduate educational program in anesthesiology, emergency medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, radiation oncology, radiology, or surgery.

Applicants must be legally able to work in the U.S., or eligible to obtain work authorization.

Pre-employment drug screening is required. A negative drug screen (including THC, the active ingredient in marijuana) is required to finalize employment.

To apply

For the 2023 – 2024 Academic year:

We are committed to recruitment practices that are equitable, demonstrate our commitment to responsible stewardship of resources, and reduce negative impacts on the global environment. To align with this commitment, interviews for our 2023-2024 Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellowship class will be held virtually. We believe this approach will attract a diverse pool of applicants, decrease applicant financial barriers, and minimize applicants’ time away from educational and clinical activities while reducing the carbon footprint of recruitment. We hope you will remain curious to see who we are and what we believe in.

• Apply through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) for fellowship applicants.
  • We ask that you provide three (3) letters of recommendation – to include a letter from your residency program director or current supervisor (if >5 years in practice). 
  • A letter from a palliative care provider is strongly encouraged, but not required. 
  • It is most important that your letter writers can speak honestly about your professionalism, patient care, communication, and interprofessional skills.
     
• Application Deadline is: August 8, 2022.  Applications submitted after this time will be considered only if there are unfilled interview positions.
   
• Virtual Interviews will take place between mid-August through the end of October.

• Appointments are made through the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Match, included under the Medical Specialties Matching Program, which is sponsored by the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP).

Helpful Links

Graduate Medical Education – For information about Employee Benefits and the Resident Faculty Wellness Center.

A Sense of OHSU – To experience OHSU Graduate Medical Education

Living In Portland – To learn more about living in Oregon

Palliative Care Service – To learn more about our clinical services offered at OHSU

Contact Us

Katie Stowers, DO, Program Director, stowersk@ohsu.edu
Sara Taub, MD, Associate Program Director, Pediatric Track taub@ohsu.edu|
Ingrid Studebaker, Recruitment Specialist studebai@ohsu.edu
Liz Schultz, Program Coordinator schulliz@ohsu.edu