MA Medical Schools Collaborative Project on Serious Illness Care
According to the Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care updates, the Massachusetts Medical Schools Collaborative has been working on several areas of serious illness care. The four medical schools in Massachusetts (Boston University School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Health Alliance, Tufts University School of Medicine and UMass Medical School) launched focus groups with the fourth year medical students led by Dr. Jennifer Reidy, Chief of Palliative Care at UMass Memorial Medical Center1.
“I think most medical students learn about serious illness care either in elective courses or ‘on the fly’ by observing other clinicians, so I’m interested to hear how they have or have not been taught these skills.” Dr. Reidy said.
Their focus groups are designed to give students the opportunity to share openly about the formal and informal serious illness care education they’ve received and will provide rich context for the Collaborative’s work in curriculum and faculty development1. They are being facilitated by Dr. Roberta Goldman, a medical anthropologist from Brown University.
“The students spoke very movingly about their training around serious illness care, positive and negative role modeling they have witnessed, and their experiences talking with patients and families about serious illness” Dr. Goldman said.
At BUSM, two, fourth-year medical students, Matthew Gasteiger and Sarah Morgan organized recruiting their classmates for the focus groups that will be held this month. We are looking forward to hearing about our students’ experience with serious illness care and the Massachusetts Medical Schools Collaborative’s work.
1. Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care: Movement at our medical schools. (2021, January). Retrieved February 02, 2021, from http://maseriouscare.org/newsletter/movement-at-our-medical-schools