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Research Snapshot Theater: Professional Development and Education, Pediatric III

Palliative Medicine Curriculum in Pediatric Critical Care & Neonatal Fellows: Development & Outcomes

Monday, March 23, 2026

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Central Time

Location: Connections Central - RST 15

Emily Dodenhoff, MD (she/her/hers)

University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose.
BB

Brooke Bissell, LICSW

Program Coordinator
Children's of Alabama

Disclosure information not submitted.
SB

Susan Buckingham, MD

Assistant Professor
University of Alabama at Birmingham

Disclosure information not submitted.
AN

Ashley Nichols, MD

Associate Professor
University of Alabama at Birmingham

Disclosure information not submitted.
SP

Samuel Perna, MD

Associate Professor
University of Alabama at Birmingham

Disclosure information not submitted.
SR

Sasha Ramini, MSN

Nurse Practitioner
Children's of Alabama

Disclosure information not submitted.
LW

Lindsay Winslow, M.Div

Chaplain
Children's of Alabama

Disclosure information not submitted.
JN

Jordan Newman, MD

Assistant Professor
Children's of Alabama

Disclosure information not submitted.

Introduction: A critical training goal of pediatric critical care and neonatology fellowship training is the mastery of primary palliative medicine (PPM) skills: end of life symptom management (EOLSM) and delivering serious news (DSN). The fellow experience is often truncated and highly influenced by their clinical experience. The goal of this project is to develop a high yield curriculum to improve fellow comfort level and familiarity with these topics

Methods: Developed curriculum focused on different pillars of PPM: 1-EOLSM, 2-DSN, 3-Managing/identifying spiritual distress and 4-Bereavement/palliative emergencies. Sessions were co-presented by a board certified palliative medicine (PM) physician & an interdisciplinary team member. Topics were presented during weekly sessions. Targeted audience were PCC and neonatology fellows. Additional participants were PCC faculty and nurse practitioners. Each participant completed pre/post surveys quantifying comfort level with the various PM topics

Results: 19 participants completed the pre survey with a 42% (n=8) post response rate. 71% (n=5) attended 75% of the sessions. All perceived comfort level domains improved from pre to post surveys. Notably, managing EOL dyspnea improved 16.3% (54.7% vs 71%), terminal delirium by 20.5% (33.5% vs 54%), and secretion management by 7.3% (62.7% vs 70%). Comfort level with responding to emotion improved 18.9% (59.9% vs 78.8%), DSN 8.3% (66.5% vs 74.8%), and responding to spiritual distress 5% (49% vs 54%)

Conclusions: Results demonstrate the curriculum is effective. Participants reported improved comfort level in basic symptom management, an awareness of palliative emergencies, and the multidisciplinary approach to end of life care.
Limitations include a lack of consistent attendance and poor response rate for post surveys. Additionally, the session discussing symptom management at end of life sparked considerable discussion. This limited the presenter’s ability to complete his slide deck during the scheduled session. In future iterations of this curriculum, we plan on adding an additional session to fully explore symptom management