Warren Alpert School of Medicine, Hope Hospice extend affiliation

Dr. Ed Martin of Hope Hospice RI and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University talks with medical students about patient care at the Philip Hulitar Hospice Center Providence. / COURTESY HOPE HOSPICE RI
Dr. Ed Martin of Hope Hospice RI and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University talks with medical students about patient care at the Philip Hulitar Hospice Center Providence. / COURTESY HOPE HOSPICE RI

PROVIDENCE – Earlier this month, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Hope Hospice & Palliative Care Rhode Island announced a renewed and expanded affiliation for five additional years.

This agreement formalizes the very strong relationship we have with the medical school, our commitment to train physicians and future physicians in hospice and palliative care and the medical school’s recognition that this kind of education is an important part of training, Dr. Ed Martin, chief medical officer at Hope Hospice RI, said in a phone interview with Providence Business News. The two organizations, which first affiliated in 2012, have long collaborated in providing training every year.

“This recognizes the unique nature of our organization; we’re the only non-hospital affiliate with The Warren Alpert Medical School. It’s not just the medical students we work with, it’s the residents, the fellows … everyone in training,” said Martin. Noting that the hospice’s nurses, social workers, chaplains and bereavement staff are also engaged in providing training, Martin said, “It’s a different experience for learners. In many ways, it presents an experience [akin to] the changing face of medicine – it’s practicing as part of a team, and we do much more work now in medicine in an interdisciplinary way.”

Martin continued, “Our first hope is that all physicians should be able to have open conversations with patients about where they are in their illness, their prognosis and what their wishes are for care. All physicians should pay attention to the physical symptoms of pain, nausea and shortness of breath [as well as] anxiety and depression, and they all should attend to quality of life.” Identifying those as some of the basic palliative care skills that all physicians should have, Martin noted that, while in medical school, students rarely witness people dying without being hooked up to monitors in the hospital. “For many people, being around people in the final days of life seems frightening, depressing [and] awful,” said Martin, who explained that one medical student told him that she dreaded going to hospice, fearing that it would be one of the worst days of her medical school career. In fact, Martin recounted that, at day’s end, she had identified it as one of her best days in medical school.

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“Comforting and guiding patients and their loved ones at the end of life is an essential responsibility of medical practice,” Dr. Jack A. Elias, dean of medicine and biological sciences at Brown, said in the joint statement. “We are glad to have a leading educational partner in Hope Hospice RI, where the staff, including some of our faculty members, provide empathetic care to residents in need throughout Rhode Island.”

Lauding this new agreement, Hope Hospice RI President and CEO Diana Franchitto said in the statement, “The … [renewed] agreement … underscores the growing emergence of hospice and palliative care into mainstream medicine. It continues to represent the kind of innovative, visionary thinking and the spirit of collaboration that has been a mainstay in both organizations from our early beginnings.”

The new agreement permits Hope Hospice RI to use Brown’s logo, adding visual strength to its designation as “The Major Teaching Affiliate for Hospice and Palliative Medicine of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.”
Echoing the value of the affiliation between the two entities, Dr. Glenn Tung, the medical school’s associate dean for clinical affairs, said, “It is an important relationship that we expect will grow as the population we serve ages.”

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