• Daniel Shalev, Maureen I Ekwebelem, Lilla A Brody, Mary E Callahan, Navendra Singh, and M Carrington Reid.
• Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine (D.S, M.E, L.B, N.S, M.C.R), Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York, USA; Department of Psychiatry (D.S), Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York, USA. Electronic address: Das2043@med.cornell.edu.
• J Pain Symptom Manage. 2023 Oct 1; 66 (4): 310319310-319.

ContextPsychological and psychiatric care is a core domain of palliative care. Despite a high burden of mental health comorbidity among individuals with serious illness, the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education gives little guidance about training hospice and palliative medicine (HPM) fellows in this domain of care. Currently, there is a lack of empiric data on HPM physician fellowship training in mental health topics.ObjectivesTo characterize HPM physician fellowship training practices in the psychological and psychiatric aspects of palliative care.MethodsA cross-sectional survey study querying HPM fellowship training directors nationally.ResultsA total of 95 programs participated (51% response rate). A total of 98% programs offered didactics on mental health topics. Topics universally deemed as important by program directors were commonly taught, but there was variability in both the perceived importance and the didactic coverage of several topics. Only 15% of programs offered core rotations in psychiatry. Most programs offered psychiatry electives, but such electives were only rarely utilized by fellows. Interdisciplinary team (IDT) rounds infrequently included doctoral mental health clinicians.ConclusionsBeyond a few commonly identified and taught key topics, there is variability in clinical and didactic exposure to mental health training among HPM fellowships. Standardizing key learning objectives and guiding educators in how to achieve these objectives could improve the preparedness of the physician workforce in HPM to meet the mental health needs of patients with serious illness.Copyright © 2023 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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