Hybrid Theory: Creation of a Faculty Position That Allows Half-Time Hospice Employment Alongside Academic Palliative Care

BACKGROUND: The specialty of hospice and palliative medicine struggles to merge the fast-paced technological consultative work of acute hospital palliative care with slower paced and home-based hospice. Each has equal if different merits. Here, we describe creation of a position that allowed half-time hospice employment, alongside academic hospital-based palliative care. METHODS: Johns Hopkins Medicine and Gilchrist, Inc., a large nonprofit hospice, partnered to form a joint position with time spent equally between the two locations. RESULTS: Created as a university position with leasing to the hospice, specific attention has been paid to mentoring at both sites to allow professional advancement. Both organizations have benefited in terms of recruitment, and more physicians have chosen this dual pathway suggesting that it is working well. DISCUSSION: Hybrid positions are possible and may be desired by those who wish to practice both palliative medicine and hospice. Creation of one successful position helped recruit a second and a third candidate a year later. The original recipient has been promoted within Gilchrist to direct the inpatient unit. Such positions require careful mentoring and coordination to allow success at both sites and this can be done with foresight

Evaluating and Responding to Medical Student Demand for Global Health Education

Introduction With the constant interchange of people and diseases across continents, “the separation between domestic and international health problems is no longer useful.” (1) Look no further than the 80,000 refugees currently resettled in the United States for proof that health is a global phenomenon. The medical community needs to respond to the changing global landscape by training future healthcare leaders to think and act globally. Medical students across the U.S. recognize this need with 68% of U.S. allopathic medical schools having an active student global or international health interest group. (2) Unfortunately, training opportunities lag behind student interest with only 39% of medical schools offering didactic coursework in global health. (3) To date, there have been no formalized, organized global health educational electives at Sidney Kimmel Medical College. However, the majority of students are actively involved in at least one organization dedicated to underserved populations, cultural diversity, and public/international health, including several student-run clinics targeting refugees in Philadelphia. Working with refugee and immigrant populations provides the opportunity to do global health work locally. The purpose of this study was to capture SKMC interest in global health and assess the need for improvement in the medical college curriculum