Evaluating a Pediatric Palliative Care Elective Rotation Through Prompted Reflective Writing and Aligning With Competencies

Abstract

Background:

Hospice and palliative medicine is important in the education of pediatric residents. Little is known about if and how residents' learnings during a pediatric palliative care elective fulfill core competencies and Pediatrics subcompetencies as set forth by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and published subspecialty competencies for residents in pediatric hospice and palliative medicine (pHPM).

Objectives:

To evaluate what residents are learning on a four-week pediatric palliative care elective rotation at a single institution and how these learnings fulfill ACGME and pHPM competencies.

Setting/Subjects:

Prompted, written reflections were collected from residents completing a pediatric palliative care rotation at a large, urban academic center in the United States between academic years 2016–2017 and 2020–2021.

Measurements:

A qualitative, inductive reasoning approach was used to analyze reflections for emergent themes and codes. A deductive approach was used to map resulting codes to ACGME core competencies, Pediatric subcompetencies, and pHPM competencies.

Results:

Twenty-five resident reflections were collected. Inductive analysis revealed three primary themes and 102 codes. These codes were mapped to all six ACGME core competencies and mapped to most Pediatric subcompetencies with the exception of performing a physical examination, organizing and prioritizing patients, diagnostic evaluation, and community and population health. Codes mapped to most pHPM competencies with the exception of two symptom-based competencies, malignant bowel obstruction and severe fatigue.

Conclusions:

Residents' written reflections following a pediatric palliative care elective rotation demonstrated robust learnings that fulfill many core, specialty, and subspecialty competencies, particularly those that relate to patient- and family-centered care, communication, professionalism, and systems-based practice.