Prepare to provide care to patients with serious life-limiting illnesses in The Brock Fellowship for Hospice and Palliative Medicine.
What sets us apart?
Gain experience in inpatient palliative, ambulatory and outpatient continuity clinic, hospice and long-term care in our one-year fellowship.
Our fellows can rotate through electives in our outpatient pain management and rehabilitation clinic, memory assessment consultation clinic, palliative care consult service and Critical Care and Nephrology divisions.
What you'll learn
Pain and symptom management
Communication skills
Continuum of care
Where you'll train
Sentara Norfolk General Hospital
Sentara Norfolk General Hospital is a Level I trauma center and 525-bed tertiary care hospital, which serves as our primary teaching institution. We partner with Sentara Norfolk General to offer advanced diagnostic and therapeutic services. The Palliative Care Medicine team sees patients at different stages of illness, including malignancies and non-cancer diagnoses, such as end-stage heart and lung disease. Fellows work with the Palliative Care Medicine team weekly throughout the year. Board-certified/eligible Hospice and Palliative Medicine physicians, a Hospice and Palliative Care certified nurse, nurse practioners and a social worker serve the hospital.
Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital
Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital provides comprehensive sub-acute hospital care and skilled nursing care following an acute illness or surgical event. The hospital focuses on transitioning patients through rehabilitative and restorative care toward their eventual return home. Lake Taylor's long-term acute care hospital focuses on patients with complex medical problems and rehabilitation needs that require intense, special treatment for extended periods of time. Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital's Pediatric Unit is a 25-bed unit where teams care for children with chronic illness from birth until death.
Sentara Heart Hospital
Sentara Heart Hospital, on the campus of Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, is a dedicated heart hospital with 112 inpatient beds and 45 pre- and post-procedural rooms for patients undergoing outpatient heart procedures. The Advanced Heart Failure Palliative Medicine clinic opened in 2016. The clinic has had about 90 visits specifically for Palliative Medicine. To better serve the educational needs of the fellowship, the established clinic will include Cancer, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Dementia. Fellows participate in this activity weekly throughout the academic year.
CHKD, Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters
Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters is the only freestanding children's hospital in Virginia. With 206 beds, it is the regional pediatric referral center for coastal Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. The pain and palliative care program at CHKD offers acute and chronic pain management for pediatric patients. The team also provide palliative care - comfort care - to children who have life-limiting illnesses or chronic, complex medical conditions.
Edmarc Hospice for Children
Edmarc was established in 1978 and was the first hospice in the nation designed specifically for children. The hospice team is made of nurses, social workers/bereavement counselors and medical directors. Their average daily census is 80 patients. Fellows see and talk with children and their families on a regular basis during interdisciplinary rounds. Fellows have the opportunity to follow different disciplines on home visits. They gain in-depth exposure to acute pain and symptom management of the pediatric patient and education and counseling for pediatric patients and families dealing with chronic and life-limiting diagnoses.
Hampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center
The Hampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center has 142 acute beds in medicine, surgery, psychiatry, and neurology, 234 extended care beds in intermediate medicine, palliative (hospice) care, spinal cord injury, and nursing home care, and a 294-bed rehabilitative residential care domiciliary for a total of 670 operating beds. The hospice medical director is board-certified in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. The fellows will participate in daily rounds of inpatient hospice patients as well as evaluate potential new admissions to the hospice.
Sentara Hospice
Our hospice team provides patient care in several settings - from home to assisted living facilities to nursing or long-term care facilities. The team is made up of carefully selected and screened professionals who provide the same high-quality care that physicians and patients alike have come to expect from Sentara. You can be confident that our staff treats patients and family members with the utmost of care and respect.
Caring for a loved one when they're ill can be a stressful and emotional experience for the whole family, and it's hard sometimes to know what else is available for comfort and support. Too often, families who could have benefited much sooner from hospice care just didn't know it was an option.
Hospice begins at the point when someone has a disease or illness and no longer responds to treatment, or the opportunity for a cure no longer exists. The goal transitions to improving comfort and quality of life - and to providing dignity in death. Sometimes hospice care can get confused with palliative care. The difference is that palliative services occur when a patient is still in active treatment and are a means to help patients understand their condition, manage pain, and make important decisions about their illness
See yourself in Hampton Roads
The Hampton Roads region is a vibrant community with 1.7 million residents scattered across nine cities and five counties in southeastern coastal Virginia.
Miles of waterfront, historical and cultural attractions, parks and outdoor recreation areas, lively nightlife, seasonal festivals, and family-friendly entertainment make it clear that there's something for everyone here in Hampton Roads.
Tour the shared campus
One of the benefits of the school's location is the proximity to CHKD and Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. The shared campus gives students, residents and fellows access to educational opportunities as well as high-level subspecialty care.
At Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University, we know life happens, and we want you to be covered when it does. That's why we offer competitive benefits packages for our residents and fellows.
A supportive environment
Work-life balance is important during your fellowship, and we are committed to supporting our fellows throughout their time at Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University. Through the Wellness Works program, our residents and fellows receive the same wellness resources as our faculty and staff.
In addition, our Resident Wellness program for residents and fellows gives you access to support groups, after-hours counseling services, running clubs, leadership coaching, and more.
