Not Just Good Pizza and Bad Politics: The Chicagoland Solution to our Workforce Shortage (SA505)

Abstract

1.Describe the creation and integration of a novel multicentered, longitudinal education and mentoring program for interdisciplinary providers: the Coleman Palliative Medicine Training Program.2.Demonstrate the use of individual practice improvement projects to create meaningful, sustainable changes in palliative care services.3.Practice the application of Intent to Change tools used in our program to engage learners and assist with goalsetting, project development, and mentorship. The growth of palliative medicine programs is dramatically outpacing the number of providers who are adequately trained to provide high-quality care to patients and families living with serious illness. In response, hospice and palliative medicine leaders across the greater Chicagoland area, with support from a local foundation, created the Coleman Palliative Medicine Training Program. This 2-year longitudinal program is currently training 35 doctors and nurses from 23 hospitals seeking to start or improve existing palliative medicine programs. During this session, we will describe essential components of this large-scale multicentered educational program, including recruitment tactics, curriculum development, and evaluation. Methods of teaching and community building will be highlighted, including e-learning through an open-access website, biannual workshops, and direct observation of clinical skills with assigned mentors. One unique feature of this program involves the use of Intent to Change tools centered on learners' developing, implementing, and evaluating a practice improvement project to improve the quality of or access to primary palliative care services at their respective practice settings. Twenty-two mentors from 10 academic palliative medicine and hospice organizations provide direct observation opportunities and guidance around the implementation and evaluation of these projects throughout the 2-year program. During the interactive portion of this session, participants will review examples of practice improvement projects and employ the use of Intent to Change tools as a potential method to enhance interprofessional development at their home institution.