The Medical Center of Central Georgia

Family Medicine Residency

Didactic Conferences

Fellowship faculty are committed to providing time and resources for reading, reflection, and didactic presentations. Each week of the fellowship ,except for holidays, there will be four hours of didactic conferences, two hours each on Tuesday and Friday afternoons. Times and sites will be provided on a monthly conference schedule. Most conferences will be held either at the hospital palliative care service or at Pine Pointe, the inpatient Hospice. Didactic sessions are specifically designed to complement clinical experiences.

Didactic sessions are divided into the following categories:

Decision Making
Advance directives, communication, last hours/days of life, medicolegal issues, palliative sedation & physician-assisted death, prognosis, withholding & withdrawing
Health Care Systems
Hospice, hospice medical direction, hospitals, intensive care units, nursing homes
Pain
Neuropathic pain, non-opioids for pain, opioids, opioid conversion case examples, pain assessment, pain management, pathophysiology of pain
Specific Conditions
Cancer, dementia, genitourinary disease, geriatrics, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, liver disease, neurologic disease, pediatrics, renal disease, respiratory disease, skin disease
Psychosocial Aspects
Caregiving, cultural aspects, delirium, depression, grief & bereavement, psychological issues, self-care (including the effects of fatigue and sleep deprivation on providers), spirituality
Symptom Management
Anorexia, cachexia & fatigue, artificial hydration & nutrition, bleeding, bowel obstruction, constipation, diarrhea, dysphagia, dyspepsia & hiccups, dyspnea & cough, interventional procedures, jaundice, ascites & hepatic encephalopathy, mouth care, nausea & vomiting, pruritis & sweating, radiation therapy, secretions, sleep

There is a total o f 190 hours of didactic conferences during the twelve month fellowship. HPM fellows receive an extensive evidence-based collection of journal articles, book chapters, and other palliative care resources at fellowship orientation.