Fellowship in Palliative Medicine
The Medical College of Wisconsin's Palliative Care Program is a nationally recognized leader in palliative medicine. Our one-year, adult clinical fellowship program is one of the first ACGME-accredited fellowships in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. We train physicians to become skilled clinician-educators in preparation for a career in academic palliative medicine or community practice in hospice or palliative care.
Fellows work as part of interdisciplinary teams in a variety of settings – inpatient consultation services, an inpatient palliative care unit, a continuity palliative care outpatient clinic, an inpatient hospice unit, home hospice visits, ample electives – to gain a solid foundation in providing comprehensive care for the seriously ill. Candidates with an interest in academic medicine will be provided additional training and mentoring in medical education. We have accepted and successfully trained fellows from a wide variety of specialties including internal medicine, family medicine, vascular and interventional radiology, neurology, surgery, pediatrics, and anesthesiology.
Program Director's Welcome
Thank you for your interest in our Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Please explore our website and learn more about our fellowship in hospice and palliative medicine.
Our Palliative Care Program was founded in 1993 by Dr. David E. Weissman and is a nationally respected program with a proud tradition of innovation. As a former graduate, I can assure you that our fellowship offers a comprehensive educational experience that will make you well prepared for a career in academic or non-academic Hospice or Palliative Medicine. We have a 100% pass rate among our board eligible graduates on the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Board exams. Graduates from our program have gone on to have varied and successful careers, becoming medical directors of academic Palliative Care Programs, clinician educators at major academic medical centers, and leaders of community-based palliative care and hospice programs.
Beyond teaching the needed clinical skills to become astute hospice and palliative care clinicians, our fellowship places extra emphasis on training fellows to become effective educators and leaders. We are fortunate to have the Kern Institute at MCW, which is dedicated to advancing a new foundation in medical education based on character, competence, and caring. MCW also hosts a regional Great Lakes CME conference in dilemmas in palliative care. I along with several other faculty in our program are editors of an internationally accessed peer-review website on Palliative Medicine related topics called Fast Facts and Concepts. Additionally, we have several faculty engaged in meaningful clinical research. Hence, our fellows have plenty of opportunities to collaborate with leaders in the field in meaningful scholarship and clinical education and complete fellowship with a very full CV.
Our fellows train under the supervision of clinical faculty from a multitude of specialties including Neurology, Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics, and Psychology. This allows our fellows to benefit from a broad training perspective. We also offer a wide variety of clinical experiences. This includes a well-established palliative medicine consult service at Froedtert Hospital that is fully integrated into the hospital system; clinical rotations at the Zablocki VA Medical Center which includes a dedicated palliative care unit; an outpatient continuity Palliative Medicine clinic; a rotation at a free standing hospice facility called the Aurora VNA Zilber Family Hospice; and a month long home hospice rotation.
Here is a link which goes over benefits, conditions, and terms of employment if you were to pursue a fellowship with us.
GME Benefits, Conditions & Terms of Employment
We look forward to hearing from you and hope that you seriously consider our program!
Thank you,
Sean Marks, MD
Associate Professor and Fellowship Director
Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship
Medical College of Wisconsin
Program Details
Medical trainees need professional development training as they care for patients and their families during serious illness and end of life. Supervision is a professional activity in which trainees develop understanding and awareness of influences such as beliefs and culturally embedded values that contribute to clinical practice. It involves observation, evaluation, feedback and facilitation of self-assessment. It provides opportunities to discuss difficult or emotionally charged encounters with patient and families, which promotes the development of a self-reflective and self-respectful approach to clinical practice. This study examines the effects of bi-weekly supervision with a licensed psychologist, Jo Weis, PhD, on the professional development of medical doctors working with the seriously ill through quantitative and qualitative methods.
Contact Us
Please call or email us to discuss our fellowship program.
Julie Alexander
Program Coordinator
(414) 955-0516
Medicine Educational Programs
Hub for Collaborative Medicine
7th Floor, A7760-5
Medical College of Wisconsin
8701 Watertown Plank Rd.
Milwaukee, WI 53226