Community of Champions Resources

VitalTalk is a longstanding organization that offers (for a fee) time-tested communication skills trainings (live and online).  There is also a VitalTalk Tips app (free) that offers guides to conversations.  MGB has VitalTalk trainers who periodically offer VitalTalk trainings.  Check out the Continuum website’s training page for information.

This resource offers stepwise guidance on how to talk with patients about advance care planning, goals of care, palliative care, and hospice.  It gives easy to use language based on the literature on what works with patients.

ePrognosis is a website from UCSF.  It offers access to calculators that offer prognosis based on your patient’s characteristics.  The site also offers communication skills videos about various aspects of discussing prognosis with patients.

Ariadne Labs, affiliated with MGB, is a public health research and implementation organization and is the birthplace of the Serious Illness Care Program and the SIC that MGB adapted for our use.  This site offers resources around the conversation as well as resources for patients and caregiver

CAPC is a membership-based organization (do MGB employees have a membership??) that offers short, modular courses on communication skills and symptom management as well as modules on self-care for clinicians.

ELNEC, the End of Life Nursing Education Consortium, offers online coursework that addresses communication skills, symptom management, and a number of other related topics in this 8 module series (for about $60!!).

The HMS Center for Palliative Care offers a 2-day introductory, online training in the foundations of palliative care.  The training is appropriate for a broad range of members of the interprofessional team, including adult and pediatric clinicians, and focuses heavily  on communication skills and symptom management.

The HMS Center for Palliative Care offers a 3-day intensive, online training in the foundations of palliative care.  The training is appropriate for a broad range of members of the interprofessional team, including adult and pediatric clinicians, and focuses heavily  on communication skills and symptom management.

The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) offers a wide range of educational resources for Palliative Care trainees and professionals.

This website is a repository of short (1-2 page) summaries on hundreds of palliative care topics with an easy-to-use search function by category.  It has excellent summaries of topics that are disease/specialty and symptom specific and topics about communication, hospice, legal/ethical issues, and many more.

CAPC is a membership-based organization (do MGB employees have a membership??) that offers short, modular courses.  This link takes you to modules about symptom management. 

This widely used and frequently updated resource has many chapters on palliative care, including many on symptom management.

Care Dimensions, a hospice program in Massachusetts, provides excellent information on how patients qualify for hospice services.  A patient-focused FAQ page is also available in the patient resources section, including what is provided and paid for.

Care Dimensions, a hospice program in Massachusetts, provides excellent information on how patients qualify for palliative care services.  A patient-focused FAQ page is also available in the patient resources section, including what is provided and paid for.

This quick read offers highlights on how to talk with your patient about hospice.

This brief GeriPal article explains how the author, Alex Smith, explains hospice to patients.

Do you ever struggle to know how to talk to your patients about palliative care?  What it is.  What it’s not.  GeriPal offers this brief article and a podcast to help give you language that can help in these discussions.  This site also offers a wealth of other podcasts, videos and other resources.

HPCFM offers focused information on hospice (and palliative care) services such as what hospice is, who is eligible, and where the services can be offered.  It also has links on Advance Care Planning and Advance Directives and many others.

Caregivers Like Me offers videos in English and Spanish that aim to improve the end-of-life caregiving experience for family caregivers of diverse older adults through culturally tailored approaches to educating and fostering collaboration among family members and the hospice interdisciplinary team.

This app, offered by the American Geriatrics Society, contains multiple guides to improving geriatric care including the 5Ms, a geripsych guide, DM and Afib guide, and cognitive assessment tools, among others.

This podcast series includes hundreds of episodes of geriatric and palliative care relevant topics. Produced by two doctors at UCSF, CME/MOC is available.

The American Geriatrics Society is the national society for geriatric medicine.  This site offers numerous educational offerings pertaining to geriatric medicine and education.

Co-developed by the Hartford Foundation, IHI, AMA, and Catholic Health Association of the US, Age-Friendly Health Systems is an effort to redesign health systems (like MGB) to offer high quality care for older patients. This website offers information on the program and education on what makes systems more “age-friendly.”

IHI, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, offers fee-based coursework in QI, leadership, patient safety, and patient/family-centered care.  CEU/CME credits are offered.

Intermountain Health’s Healthcare Delivery Institute is a national leader in QI education.  Their intensive course sets learners up to lead QI programs.

Johns Hopkins offers a QI course centered on Lean methodology. Lean is a highly regarded approach to optimizing processes to ensure best outcomes.  Live and asynchronous options are offered.

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) offers leadership trainings for nurses at all levels.

Intermountain Health in Utah runs a highly regarded leadership development course twice yearly. 

CAPC is a membership-based organization that offers many palliative care and geriatric resources.  This link takes you to their leadership skills offerings.

Prepare for Your Care offers a free printable advance directive form that can be filled out (online or by hand) and printed and given to the healthcare team.

Created by Dr. Hemal Sampat, MGH hospitalist and member of the MGH Ethics Committee, this slide set explains the legal and ethical issues involved with a wide range of patient care issues including healthcare proxies and guardianship (as well as self-directed discharges, Section 12, and restraints).

The MOLST (Medical Order for Life Sustaining Treatment) is currently used to ensure patients’ wishes about what advanced treatments and hospitalizations they would find acceptable.  In 2027, Massachusetts will transition to the POLST (Physician Order for Life Sustaining Treatment) for which there will be a national electronic registry.  MOLST forms will still be honored after that time.

Danielle Green, MGH Palliative Care NP, offers a list of caregiver support resources. Please see her Community of Champions talk on this topic.

From The Conversation Project, this workbook helps patients share their goals and values.  Patients can print it and fill it in, sharing it with their medical team. This site has many other patient-oriented resources.

From The Conversation Project, this workbook helps parents talk with their child about the child’s illness and what matters most to the child.  This will help parents understand what is important to the their child and make difficult decisions. This site has many other patient-oriented resources.

From The Conversation Project, this guide helps patients understand what a healthcare proxy is and who would be the right person to choose for that role, as well as how to talk with that person about being their HCP.  This site has many other patient-oriented resources.

Care Dimensions, a Massachusetts hospice and palliative care service provider, offers an easy-to-read resource for patient s and families regarding what palliative care is and what resources these programs can provide.

Care Dimensions, a Massachusetts hospice and palliative care service provider, offers an easy-to-read resource for patients and families regarding what hospice is and what resources these programs can provide.

Prepare for Your Care’s website offers easy access to free resources like preparing an advance directive (to share your wishes about your care with your care team) as well as a guide to help patients talk with their care team about these wishes.

This is the first episode in a series on the oral history of palliative care.  In this podcast, you will hear an interview with Dr. Betty Ferrell, Director of Nursing Research and Education and Professor at City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, CA.  She is also the Principal Investigator of ELNEC (End of Life Nursing Education Consortium) and has over 500 peer reviewed publications.

• Palliative Care for the Seriously Ill, Kelley AS, NEJM 2015
• Continuing Professional Development for Primary Care Providers in Palliative and End of Life Care. Kelley LT. JPM 2020
• United States Best Practices Guidelines for Primary Palliative Care in the Emergency Department. Loffredo AJ. Ann Emerg Med 2021
• Palliative Care Best Practices Guidelines. Gail T.  American College of Surgeons 2017.
• Sample Metrics and Dashboards for Serious Illness Care Programs: An Implementation Case Series. Hachem Y et. al Electronic Health Record Serious Illness Conversation Dashboards: An Implementation Case Series. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2025 Feb;69(2):e139-e146.
• Identifying Palliative Care Champions to Promote High-Quality Care to Those with Serious Illness. Kamal AH, Bowman B, Ritchie CS.  J Am Geriatr Soc. 2019 May;67(S2):S461-S467.