The UCSF Aging and Palliative Care Elective and Certificate Program
Course Description: This elective emphasizes practical skills and knowledge to prepare students (regardless of ultimate specialty choice) to provide best practice medical care to older adults and dying patients of all ages.
Find a full course description with list of lectures, seminars, clinical work, and independent study HERE.
Find the elective organizer/sign up form HERE.
Why is this unlike any other UCSF elective?
- Can be taken once or up to 5 times for credit
- Combines practical, hands-on clinical skills training, noon lunch lectures and independent study
- Can be taken in a single quarter or over the course of the year
- Allows for individualized plan of study
- Focus on pediatric palliative care, adult palliative care, geriatrics, or some of each
- Combine activities (lectures, clinical, independent study) to meet your goals
- Work toward a certificate of added competence in aging and palliative care
- Work with award winning teaching faculty in specialties with the highest clinician satisfaction ratings (i.e. this is fun work).
We are passionate about our patients and what we do and eager to share our learning and excitement with you!
How do I earn credit?
- Sign up for Med 170.32A.
- For each credit earned, you need to put in 10 hours of time. This can be done lots of different ways:
- Clinical work: for 3 hours/session
- Lunch lectures/panels/seminars: 1 hour
- Independent study: varies
- Check out the attached full course description for options and details.
Possible options include:
- Spread the course over 2-3 quarters. You would then get an “in progress grade” until the quarter when you finished the 10 hours. Examples:
- Attend 9 lunch seminars (9) and attend the wrap up session 91), get credit in the spring semester
- Focus on pediatric palliative care, attend relevant talks (4 or 5), do one clinical session (3), and attend the wrap up session (1)
- Do one clinical session per quarter to explore the UCSF and community clinical sites (3x3) and attend the wrap up session (1)
- Earn a credit each quarter by doing clinical work, attending lunch seminars and/or independent study.
- Fall quarter: general/underserved elder focus. Attend 3 lectures(3), ACE unit at SFGH(3), Housecalls visits in Mission or Bayview (3) and wrap up (1)
- Winter quarter: palliative care focus. Lecture (2), Compass Care Peds PC (3) VA Palliative Care Consults (3), indep study (2) and wrap up (1)
- Spring quarter: Hospitalized elder focus. Lectures (3), SFGH ACE unit (3), Moffitt Palliative Care (3) and wrap up (1)
Still not clear? ask me! ( Also, you’re allowed to change your mind. The only requirement is finishing 10 hours of activities.)
What’s this about a certificate?
The “UCSF Certificate of Added Competence in Aging and Palliative Care” is in progress. Details will be available in October. The goal is for you to gain expertise in these areas through this course, clinical rotations and electives, and research. Our goal is to offer this to students in all UCSF professional schools.
I missed the organizational meeting – can I still take the elective?
Yes! Sign up with the registrar.
Why does it say 0.0 credits for the fall quarter when I try to register?
The 0 credit is an error. This is the first longitudinal elective and there's been some confusion. We're working to resolve this so that a person whose elective is in progress but unfinished gets and "IP" grade and a person who finishes gets a P and can sign up again if s/he wants.
How do I prove I’ve done a shadowing or clinical skills session?
Clinical work should be confirmed as follows: Instead of the generic "clinical shadowing" as currently listed, you might say, for example "Jewish Home" 10/16/09 and have the mentor you worked with sign it, i.e. Tom Bookwalter PharmD or Jay Luxenberg MD at the Jewish Home. The final version of the form should be brought to the wrap up session.
How do I prove I’ve done a self-study module?
For the self-study modules, you can also bring your post-test or written response to the wrap-up session unless you want to discuss in which case you can email or send them to me at box 1265.
Other questions?
Contact Dr. Louise Aronson at Louise.Aronson@ucsf.edu