PALLIATIVE CARE CONSULT SERVICE
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has 1,535 licensed beds system-wide and 885-beds on the main campus, which includes level 1 trauma center, Brenner Children’s hospital, and Comprehensive Cancer Center with 60,023 admissions in the most recent year reported. It is the largest employer in Forsyth County with more than 19,000 employees system-wide. The fellow will participate in a consult service that receives over 1200 consults per year. The fellow will develop skills in consultative palliative care, symptom management, communication, inter-disciplinary care, transition management and end-of-life care. The consult service consists of a staff of faculty physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, supportive care nurses, social workers, chaplains, and pharmacists.
RADIATION ONCOLOGY ROTATION
Fellows will spend 1 week rotating in radiation oncology. The goal of this rotation is to provide fellows with opportunity to learn basic concepts and practices of radiotherapy and understand the common side effects along with the role of radiation on pain management.
ONCOLOGY AND PALLIATIVE NEUROLOGY ROTATION
Fellows will spend 2 weeks rotating in a variety of outpatient clinics to gain better knowledge of common side effects/adverse effects related to treatment of common oncological cancers along with a variety of neurological conditions. Fellows with rotate in the muscular dystrophy clinic; the ALS clinic; the Huntington’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disease clinic; and a variety of different oncological clinics (e.g. lung cancer, breast cancer, GI cancers, etc).
ANESTHESIA PAIN AND ADDICTION MEDICINE
Fellows will rotate with the Wake Forest Anesthesia Chronic Pain Service, both in the inpatient consult service and outpatient clinic. The fellow will gain confidence in all forms of pain control and be exposed to cutting-edge research in pain management. The purpose of this rotation is to have fellows learn when referral to an interventional pain specialist is appropriate and how these techniques can be used in the management of palliative care patients.
Fellows will also rotate in Addiction Medicine where they will gain exposure to Suboxone (Buprenorphine) clinic, gain a better understanding of Addiction and Substance Use Disorders, and learn what resources are available for patients with substance use disorders.