Frequently Asked Questions

No, we do not provide refunds except for in extenuating circumstances with documentation. If you wish to request a refund, please contact DorAnne Donesky, Practice PC Co-Director.

If you require accommodations for a disability or special needs to participate fully in this course, please contact the Course Administrator at [email protected] as soon as possible. We are committed to providing an inclusive learning environment and will work with you to ensure that appropriate arrangements are made in a timely and confidential manner.

Session 1: Palliative Care Overview
•    Write a clinical definition of palliative care that can be used when you introduce palliative care to a patient, a friend, or a colleague.
•    Determine three institutional challenges and three systemic opportunities encountered when implementing a comprehensive approach to palliative care for patients living with serious illness. 
•    Identify three medical improv principles that facilitate serious illness conversations with families.
•    Distinguish between the eight National Consensus Project (NCP) domains of quality palliative care to guide interprofessional treatment planning.
•    Evaluate at least three personal or professional environmental stressors that contribute to clinician burnout.

Session 2: Holistic Palliative Care Assessment
•    Design a comprehensive bio-psycho-social-spiritual screening protocol incorporating at least two criteria for referrals to domain experts.
•    Assess at least one specific National Consensus Project domain of expertise that directly aligns with your own current clinical scope of practice.
•    Classify the collaborative roles of at least 3 distinct members of an interprofessional palliative care team during case conceptualization.
•    Carry out advanced communication techniques in a simulated patient interaction to reinforce new prognostic information and specify the functional meaning of that information for the family.
•    Identify emotional responses in a simulated patient interaction and apply empathetic responses using all fives steps of the NURSE mnemonic.
•    Compare at least three distinct psychosocial challenges and systemic barriers encountered during care transitions for patients with serious respiratory disease undergoing lung transplantation.
•    Apply the framework of intersectionality to classify at least 2 overlapping social identities (e.g., race, age) impacting a patient's care.

Session 3: Psychological, Social, Spiritual, and Cultural Care
•    Classify the interplay of four distinct domains of interventions – psychological, social, spiritual, and cultural -- within a complex clinical case study.  
•    Identify at least two personal lenses (psychosocial, spiritual, or cultural) that could introduce bias into a clinician's treatment approach.
•    Produce four domain-specific clinical interventions designed to alleviate psychological and existential distress in patients with serious illness.
•    Design three actionable organizational strategies to implement a humanistic transformation of an interprofessional palliative care practice.
•    Identify at least three essential aspects of a safety and grounding protocol required by an interprofessional team during an active psychedelic dosing session for a patient being treated for psychosocial or existential distress.
•    Determine two meaning-making practices and two core personal values that enhance professional wellbeing and may be tested to support patients as they cope with serious illness

Session 4: Pain
•    Plan a comprehensive pain assessment that integrates at least four domains of palliative care.
•    Compare two pharmacological and two integrative pain management approaches for acute and chronic pain.
•    Apply the clinical concept of “total pain” by identifying its four distinct components (physical, psychological, social, spiritual) in a diagnostic formulation.
•    Specify three actionable strategies for advancing and enhancing the field of interprofessional palliative care.
•    Carry out advanced goals-of-care communication skills in a simulated setting using all five steps of the VitalTalk REMAP framework

Session 5: Physical Symptoms
•    Identify at least five common non-pain physical symptoms that have a psychological impact in palliative care.
•    Explain two non-pharmacologic approaches that can be used for patients with physical symptoms related to serious illness.
•    Plan one brief clinical treatment approach for anxiety and one for depression specifically tailored for patients with serious illness.
•    Design an actionable community-outreach strategy to counteract common misunderstandings about palliative care.
•    Carry out at least three core mindfulness skills (e.g., appreciative inquiry, self-reflection, guided imagery) during a clinical practice exercise.

Session 6: Prognostication and Anticipatory Guidance
•    Identify three distinct prognostic challenges faced by medical providers across different serious illnesses (e.g., cancer, cardiovascular, pulmonary, renal, neurological).
•    Evaluate three evidence-based clinical resources available to assist clinicians with prognostication and anticipatory guidance.
•    Specify the primary benefit of three distinct spiritual support modalities for guiding grieving individuals and families.
•    Carry out a simulated palliative care conversation that accurately extracts at least three core patient and family values.

Session 7: Ethics and Advance Care Planning
•    Classify the distinct collaborative responsibilities of four interprofessional team members (e.g., social work, medicine, nursing, chaplaincy) in initiating and documenting advance care planning discussions.
•    Identify at least three common ethical issues frequently encountered in palliative care practice.
•    Apply two core ethical principles to resolve a complex dilemma in a clinical palliative case scenario involving Medical Aid in Dying.
•    Determine the essential resource requirements and governance steps needed to establish a nonprofit organization that leverages faith-based partnerships for palliative care access.
•    Specify two clinical mechanisms by which narrative medicine enhances patient care delivery within palliative care settings.

Session 8: Care at End of Life
•    Identify three physiological signs of active dying and plan corresponding interventions for the family system.
•    Design a comprehensive end-of-life care plan addressing at least two distinct spiritual or cultural preferences of a terminal patient.
•    Determine at least three physiological and psychological changes that commonly occur in a patient during the last days to weeks before death.
•    Plan two evidence-based clinical strategies for palliating family distress at the end of life and supporting early bereavement.
•    Specify a comprehensive clinical approach that integrates at least one non-pharmacological pain management modality for patients diagnosed with substance use disorder.
•    Carry out a simulated family meeting as an interprofessional team, using a structured bio-psycho-social-spiritual screening protocol.

Session 9: Leadership, Advocacy and Program Development
•    Design an integrated professional development milestone plan tailored to a palliative care career trajectory.
•    Evaluate two intentional appreciation or gratitude practices utilized as essential capacities to mitigate clinician burnout in palliative care settings.
•    Compare at least 3 distinct cultural, systemic, and clinical factors that actively shape the current landscape of the end-of-life experience in America.
•    Plan a personalized professional leadership plan incorporating insights from at least 2 professional mentors, leaders, or clinical guides.
•    Assess the unique clinical contributions of at least four distinct members of an interprofessional palliative care team.
 

Physicians

This live activity has been approved by the American Association of Family Practice for a maximum of 50 AMA PRA Category 1 credits. CME credits are sponsored by Partnership HealthPlan of California. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

This CME activity meets the requirements under California Assembly Bill (AB) 1195 regarding continuing education and cultural and linguistic competency (CLC), and incorporates real-world scenarios to enhance physician competence in CLC. This CME activity meets the requirements under AB 241 regarding continuing education and implicit bias (IB), and addresses how IB affects perceptions and treatment decisions that lead to disparities in health outcomes. 

Nurses

For the purpose of recertification, the American Nurses Credentialing Center accepts AMA PRA Category 1 Credits issued by organizations accredited by the ACCME.

Up to 50 nursing continuing education contact hours (CEs) will be provided by Colleen R. Baker, LLC, California BRN provider #17646.

Social Workers

This course meets the qualifications for 50 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.

Pallium Institute is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs and LCSWs (Provider Number XXXXXXX). Pallium Institute maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content.

Chaplains

This program may be used for continuing education credit for board certified chaplains.

Pallium Institute is in the process of acquiring accreditation for Cohort 8. This section will be updated.

Grievances shall be submitted by email ([email protected] and [email protected]) and acknowledgment of receipt will be sent within 2 business days.  The Program Administrator will review the grievance and respond back to the participant within 1 week.