A rotation that includes hospice care has been required for every resident in the North Iowa Mercy Health Center family practice residency in Mason City for the past three years. As he got sicker and sicker, I was enmeshed in this echelon of specialists and subspecialists along with them. As he progressed through diagnosis, treatment, the results of treatment and, finally, decline, he ended up back within family practice. In Sparacino's program, residents go through the hospice experience with a patient. Residents become part of the decision-making team and are encouraged to stay with that patient through the process, even if the rotation ends before the patient dies.
Residents also can choose to take a month working in the hospice program as an elective.
Society is telling us that it wants all the new medical technology, but that it also wants physicians to be compassionate. We have to make death an easier process. Missoulians learning about death through life Residents learn how to care for the dying FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department .