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UNC School of Medicine | Department of Medicine

Scholarship and Academic Development

Dr. Laura Hanson with colleagues at the Hospital and Palliative Care annual assemblyThe UNC Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship is committed to developing physician leaders who contribute to the advancement of hospice and palliative care through scholarship, quality improvement, education, and innovation.

Fellows receive mentorship and protected time to engage in scholarly activities aligned with their career goals and interests. Scholarship is broadly defined and may include quality improvement, medical education, clinical research, advocacy, community engagement, or reflective writing.

Scholarly Requirements

All fellows complete the following scholarly activities during fellowship:

  • Submit a clinical case presentation or clinical vignette to the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) Annual Assembly.
  • Participate in a quality improvement (QI) project focused on improving the delivery of hospice and palliative care.
  • Complete an engaged scholarship project that contributes to clinical care, education, community partnerships, health systems improvement, or advancement of the field.

Scholarly Opportunities

Fellows work closely with faculty mentors to identify projects that align with their interests and career goals. Some examples of current and recent projects include:

Quality Improvement and Clinical Innovation

  • Implementation of the Respiratory Distress Observation Scale (RDOS) within the Inpatient Hospice Unit
  • Development of best practices for opioid prescribing and urine drug screening in outpatient palliative care
  • Quality improvement initiatives focused on compassionate extubation, ICU-to-hospice transitions, and comfort care pathways
  • Emergency Department–Palliative Care integration initiatives

Medical Education

  • Advance care planning and serious illness communication training for Internal Medicine residents
  • Needs-based palliative care curricula for Anesthesiology trainees
  • Narrative medicine and reflective practice curriculum development

Specialty and Population-Focused Palliative Care

  • Dementia and nursing home palliative care initiatives
  • Young adult and cystic fibrosis palliative care projects
  • Pediatric palliative care quality improvement and bereavement programs
  • Palliative care initiatives in sickle cell disease and nephrology

Ashley Allen poster presentation

Global and Community-Engaged Scholarship

  • Validation of the Quality of Dying and Death-Revised Global Version (QODD-RGV) in Malawi
  • Collaborations focused on improving access to palliative care in low-resource settings

Mentorship and Dissemination

Each fellow is paired with faculty mentors who provide individualized guidance. We encourage fellows to share their work through local presentations, regional and national conferences, peer-reviewed publications, educational products, and health system implementation efforts.

Our goal is not only to support completion of a fellowship project, but to equip fellows with the skills, mentorship, and scholarly foundation necessary for lifelong leadership in hospice and palliative medicine.

Learn About the UNC Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship