Our core curriculum follows the certification standards of the American Board of Internal Medicine, the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Components of the curriculum allow fellows to gain experience in providing palliative care services across the continuum of care. This includes outpatient continuity clinics, where our fellows serve a panel of palliative care patients. On the inpatient side, trainees work on interdisciplinary consult teams to provide palliative care consultation to hospitalized patients with serious illnesses. They also build experience in dedicated inpatient palliative care units focused on complex symptom management and end-of-life care. This training extends to pediatric palliative care as well.  Our fellows also rotate with home hospice and home based palliative care services. Finally, an elective rotation allows our fellows to pursue additional focused training that is tailored to their interests.

Scholarly activity is an integral component of a successful academic career. It can take many forms, including working on quality improvement projects, developing clinical protocols, designing new curricula, writing book chapters and review articles, reviewing articles prior to publication, and conducting independent research. As part of the Hospice and Palliative Care Fellowship at The Mount Sinai Hospital, each fellow spends at least four weeks participating in scholarly activity.

Those planning a research career may elect to extend their fellowship for an additional year, working alongside a faculty mentor on a research project. The additional year is devoted to data collection, analysis, and preparation for presentation and publication. Fellows may also participate in additional didactic class work.

Beyond clinical training, our fellows learn about hospice and palliative care from several non-clinical experiences. A weekly half-day is dedicated to fellow learning, including a core curriculum and journal club. Fellows also have opportunities to teach Icahn Mount Sinai medical students and contribute to the institution's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee.

Within a structured framework, our fellows establish their own goals and objectives, develop an individualized learning plan, and regularly meet with program leadership and mentors to ensure they are making progress toward achieving these goals. 

In addition to this form of self-evaluation, fellows receive continuous feedback throughout their rotations, at the end of each rotation, and twice annually through our Clinical Competency Evaluation. Using direct observation tools, all fellows receive targeted feedback on their communication and procedural skills. 

To ensure that our program continues its legacy of excellence, we additionally seek feedback on faculty and the fellowship itself. This includes the opportunity to formally and informally evaluate a faculty preceptor at the end of each rotation, anonymously. We also encourage our fellows to provide feedback at the quarterly meetings.

For didactic sessions and Grand Rounds, we provide standardized seminar evaluation forms that help us select speakers and topics for future sessions. Finally, fellows may complete a program evaluation form at the end of each training year to provide feedback on their entire experience.

For the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship at The Mount Sinai Hospital, we select fellows through the National Residency Match Program. Along with supporting documents, each applicant must submit their completed application through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). For candidates who require visa sponsorship, we do participate in both the J-1 and H1-B Visa programs.

The subspecialty of Hospice and Palliative Medicine has 10 parent boards under the American Board of Medical Specialties. Therefore, we recruit applicants who have completed an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, or American Osteopathic Association-accredited residency program, in anesthesiology; emergency medicine; family medicine; internal medicine; obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics; physical medicine and rehabilitation; psychiatry and neurology; radiology; or surgery.