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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Apr 1.
Published in final edited form as: Virtual Mentor. 2013 Dec 1;15(12):1034–1037. doi: 10.1001/virtualmentor.2013.15.12.medu1-1312

Table 1.

Stanford University School of Medicine palliative care curriculum 2012–2013

Topic Length Goal Learning Activities
Breaking bad news 3 hours (Q3) Improve students’ ability to break bad news and build their confidence in that ability. Flipped classroom:

  • Pre-work: 1-hour online video lecture and case study module.

  • 1-hour 50-minute immersive learning and skill practice.
Clinical reasoning in diagnosis and management of serious illness 4 hours (Q5) Understand that sometimes patients die unexpectedly despite having a preventable and treatable illness. Reflect on how adverse patient outcomes can impact doctors. Case study:

  • Differential diagnosis, assessment, and management of a case of meningitis in a Stanford sophomore.

  • Video simulation learning followed by debrief.
Principles of palliative care 6 hours (Q6) Understand and apply essential practices and principles of palliative care. Through a variety of activities including mini-didactics, small and large group case discussion, role play, video cases and reflective activities, students:

  • Gain an understanding of how to explore patient and family knowledge of illness, concerns, goals, and values that inform the plan of care

  • Gain an initial understanding of advance directives and POLST (physician orders for life-sustaining treatment).

  • Gain an initial understanding of how to identify patients’ and families’ cultural values, beliefs, and practices related to serious illness and end-of-life care.

  • Gain an initial understanding of assessment and management of non-pain symptoms.

  • Complete self-assessment of attitudes related to advance directives.
Self-care 2 hours (Q6) Inculcate self-care behaviors as a vital part of professional and personal life in all our medical students.

  • Define burnout.

  • List at least three reasons why the medical profession is at high risk for burnout.

  • Define moral distress and identify the etiology of moral distress.

  • Define compassion fatigue.

  • Reflect on the impact of burnout, moral distress and compassion fatigue on your personal well-being and professional productivity.

  • Identify tools to monitor burnout, moral distress and compassion fatigue in yourself.

  • List at least one practical strategy that you can implement on an ongoing basis for promoting your self-care and well-being.