Medical Students

The Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute has been actively involved in integrating palliative care into the 4 year medical school curriculum. Currently, topics that overlap many areas in medicine such as radiology, clinical laboratory medicine, palliative care, ethics and geriatrics are woven throughout the four years of medical school in a carefully designed sequence called Courses Without Walls. One of the Hertzberg Institute’s objectives is to integrate palliative care principles into all 4 years of medical school. In their pre-clinical years, students learn the basics of patient-doctor communication, pain assessment from the patient’s perspective, and caregiver support issues. In addition, a palliative care module is incorporated into the 3rd year Medicine-Geriatrics Clerkship. This module consists of 4 interactive sessions focusing on communicating bad news, pain assessment and management, non-pain symptoms, and advance directives. Medical students also practice their communication skills at the Morchand Center for Clinical Competence with standardized actor-patients.

We are in the process of creating a longitudinal palliative care and hospice elective for 1st and 2nd year students, so that they can learn about health and illness from the patient’s perspective, as well as become effective advocates for patient care.

Palliative Care Service Rotation

Fourth year medical students are invited to participate on our service through elective rotations on the Palliative Care Consultation Service. Please see the student handbook elective listing for further information. Additionally, elective rotations in palliative care are available to a limited number of external trainees.

Elective rotations on the Palliative Care Service for 2-4 weeks can be scheduled by calling the palliative care administrative office at (212) 241-1446.