Section of Palliative Care
Palliative Care Education Curriculum
Personalized resources for trainees and providers
The goal of the PCEC program is to work with Vanderbilt University Medical Center residency and fellowship programs to identify and to assess the Palliative Care education needs of the trainees in their program and create a personalized education plan for each program.
Palliative Care (PC) is the care of patients with a serious illness at any point in their medical course. Palliative Care focuses on medical decision-making, symptom management, and utilizing resources including hospice services. All clinicians who take care of patients need some basic PC skills to take the best care of their patients.
Primary Palliative Care is provided by the clinician in the routine course of practice in their primary field (example - a surgery resident discussing code status, managing symptoms related to the illness they treat, or discussing advance directives). Specialist PC is provided by a clinician who has had specialty training in PC (a PC consultant discussing complex goals of care discussion, managing refractory symptoms, or facilitating a complex hospice referral).
Monthly Resources Archive
Educational Resources
Participating Programs and Liaisons
• Critical Care
Liaison: Christina Hayhurst, MD
Associate Professor and Fellowship Director,
Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine
• Emergency Medicine
Liasion: Julie Brown, MD
VUMC Emergency Medicine
• Geriatric Medicine
Liasion: Mariu Duggan, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Geriatric Medicine
Director, Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program
• Internal Medicine
Liaison: John McPherson, MD
Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine
Vice Chair for Education, Department of Medicine
• Internal Medicine-Pediatrics
Liaison: Sandra Moutsios, MD
Associate Professor, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics
Associate Program Director, Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Residency Program
• Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Liasion: William Joseph Sullivan, MD
Professor and Vice Chair
Residency Program Director, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
• Radation Oncology
Liasion: Natalie Lockney, MD
Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology
Residency Program Director, Department of Radiation Oncology
• Urology
Liaison: Kristen Scarpato, MD, MPH
Associate Professor, Department of Urology
Vice Chair of Education and Residency Program Director, Department of Urology
Archived PCEC lectures playlist
Events
Program Leadership
Maie El-Sourady, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Director, Vanderbilt PCEC Program
maie.el-sourady@vumc.org