Calling all Hospice RNs...I'm teaching future DOCS!!!

Our hospice just got the green light to start orienting 3rd year med students (almost docs!) to hospice and palliative care. Apparently there was new requirement for med students for this rotation. Most of our nurses were too busy and some I suspect a bit intimidated to sign up to provide this lecture. Heck, I've been a nurse long enough that I've gotten past the "They must be smarter than me because they are DOCTORS" thing.


I signed up to teach and got my first rotation last week. OMG...these students are young enough to be my kids!!! LOL!! But what a GREAT opportunity to reach our target audience about what we do and what tremendous support can be offered by our teams to their patients. And for all of us Hospice RNs who've been in this field for a while will appreciate, I had one slide that said simply (in bold letters) "Death is NOT failure". It certainly opened up a lively discussion!



So....my question for all of my wonderful colleages is, "What would YOU like for me to get across to our future Physicians as it relates to the specialized field of hospice and palliative care?" I have my own talking points but would LOVE to hear some suggestions to consider as well. I want these groups of Physicians to walk away knowing that another option for care exists for patients who are not responding to curative treatments any longer. We've been talking about prognosis, how we sometimes 'graduate' patients who improve under our care (and no longer meet the eligibility requirements), our care being patient-driven and not Provider-driven. Also have discussed quality of life and collaborative approach to meeting the patient/family goals. Lots of good-old patient/case study examples. They really liked that a RN would be seeing their patients at least weekly and would be able to give them a strong clinical report on how things are going.

Thank you for any/all suggestions. I want to get as much across as possible in the 1 hour lecture I get to provide before we send 'em out for the day with our staff to shadow on visits (then one of our Medical Directors does debriefing for 90 minutes after the shadowing part is complete).

Bring 'em on, team!