Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship

Fellow Year 1

• Inpatient Palliative Care: Consults and Palliative Care Unite (PC)5 Blocks
• Hospice: Inpatient Unit and Home Visits (Hosp)3 Blocks
• Pediatrics (Peds)1 Block
• Long Term Care (LTC)1 Block
• Advanced Pain and Heart Failure (Pain/HF)1 Block
• Oncology and Critical Care (Onc/CC)1 Block
• Elective

Your education will include rounding at our main Orlando campus, where you will have exposure to different patient populations, disease trajectories, complexity of cases and close collaboration with physicians, nurse practitioners, social workers, chaplains and our AdventHealth Hospice team members. You will work on our inpatient consult service providing care to patients with disease ranges that include advanced heart failure, dementia, cancer, advanced lung disease, liver and kidney disease, just to name a few. Other rotations at our different campuses include AdventHealth Kissimmee, Celebration, Apopka, Winter Park and East Orlando. These campuses will provide exposure to practice in a community hospital.

AdventHealth Hospice has been serving the community since 1990. Support to patients and families includes the areas of Orange, Seminole, and Osceola counties and care is focused on comfort and quality of life. The services allow for patients and families to maximize quality of time surrounded by family and loved ones in settings that allow for the dying process to be significant in peace and dignity. There are two in-patient hospice units, AdventHealth Hospice Altamonte, which is a stand-alone facility with 16 private suites, and the AdventHealth Orlando in-patient unit which has 15 beds, and is located within the AdventHealth Orlando campus. You will have the opportunity to care for hospice patients in the settings of long-term care, home visits and pediatrics, which provides a well-rounded experience in caring for patients at all stages of life.

Our Palliative Care clinic experience spans 6-months (one 1/2 day per week) during training and includes an embedded oncology experience at the AdventHealth Orlando campus as well as a collaborative effort with the Palliative Medicine Clinic at Orlando Health in Lake Mary.

An experience with interdisciplinary team of providers and several physicians, Dr. Blaine Pitts helps lead the only comprehensive pediatric PC program in Central Florida. We provide a safe experience unique to each fellow’s comfort level with pediatric care.

This rotation will focus on treating the seriously-ill in the highly regulated area of nursing homes. You will team up with the Geriatric Fellowship team. The rotation will include experiences in the Geriatric clinic and care at the Mayflower and the Gardens at DePugh, which are within 3.5miles of the Orlando campus. The Mayflower is a Continuing Care Retirement Community, which provides care ranging from independent living to skilled nursing. The Gardens at DePugh is a community SNF with a five-star CMMS rating. Part of you time will be spent from the perspective of primary physician in the NH and of the hospice team visiting the nursing home.

The AdventHealth Cancer Institute is a Center of Excellence that sees over 4,000 cases per year. You will get the opportunity to work hand in hand with the oncology team, as well as experience radiation oncology and gynecologic oncology. Palliative Care, often termed Supportive Oncology, is a crucial part in extraordinary cancer care.

You will have an opportunity to work on your own quality improvement project and submit a poster or presentation for the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Annual Assembly. Locally, you have our annual AdventHealth GME Research Day to submit to as well. This integrated research experience will utilize the established GME department’s research support team, which has been successful at winning several awards within the medicine, surgery, and radiology departments.

You will have the opportunity to learn best practices for safe care from substance abuse specialists. Understanding the needs of this patient population as they face serious illnesses will allow you to best advocate for optimal care under complex circumstances.

You will have the opportunity to work with the AdventHealth Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute where you will understand better the patient experience and treatment options of LVAD, transplant, and ECMO through the perspective of the cardiovascular team and palliative team.

This will be integrated throughout your year and be led by bioethicist Dr. Dennis DeLeon. You will learn basic principle while applying them to real life with the ethics team as well as fascinating case studies.

• HPM Grand Rounds
• Journal Club
• Case Review
• Research Seminar
• Physician Wellness
• AdventHealth Biomedical Ethics Meeting
• Collaboration with CAPC Lecture Series

Fellows will attend lectures provided by Hospice and Palliative Medicine Faculty and other physician leaders on multiple topics including:

• Pathophysiology of pain and other symptoms
• Pharmacology of analgesics
• Pharmacological and non-Pharmacological management of pain and other symptoms
• Interventional pain medicine procedures
• Hospice
• Oncology
• Cardiology
• Neurology
• Critical Care
• Geriatrics
• Pediatric Palliative Care
• Clinical Ethics
• Prognostication
• Team Dynamics in the IDT
• Communication
• Family Care
• Spiritual Care
• Withholding and withdrawing life sustaining treatment
• Grief, loss and bereavement
• Quality Measures in Palliative Care

Residents, fellows, and faculty involved in required GME scholarly activities receive guidance from the Center for Academic Research Excellence (CARE) through the Clinical Academic Research team, comprised of an Academic Research Mentor, a Project Coordinator, and a Regulatory Coordinator. In addition, the center includes a group of biostatisticians, a health economist, and a medical editor.

CARE assists residents, fellows, and faculty with all types of scholarly activities (case studies, QI projects and research studies), from study design and protocol development, to data analysis and poster, presentation or manuscript preparation.

Applicants who have completed (or will complete) an ACGME approved residency in one of the following disciplines are eligible to apply:

• Internal Medicine
• Emergency Medicine
• Family Medicine
• Anesthesiology
• Psychiatry
• Neurology
• Obstetrics and Gynecology
• Pediatrics
• Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
• Radiation Oncology
• Surgery
• For international medical graduates, verification of Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) certification.
• Possess or be eligible for Florida Medical Licensure and DEA registration, along with AdventHealth Orlando Medical Staff privileges. These licensures are required before the anticipated date of matriculation.
• Be able to abide by the rules of the AdventHealth Orlando Graduate Medical Education Department and AdventHealth Orlando.
• Evidence of aptitude and interest in hospice and palliative care during residency training and/or practice with definite plans to include hospice and palliative care in the practice of medicine upon the completion of the fellowship program.
• Excellent academic and clinical performance in residency training defined on the basis of standardized examination scores and clinical evaluations.
• Excellent leadership skills demonstrated in residency training or practice.

AdventHealth offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits package for trainees.

For more information about the benefits we offer, including salary, medical and dental insurance, and paid time off, please visit our GME benefits page.