Next-level Practice in Palliative Care

  • Continuing Education
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Registration Deadline: January 5, 2027

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Next-Level Practice in Palliative Care is a three-day, live, online intensive appropriate for all members of adult and pediatric palliative and hospice care teams ready to enhance their practice skills.

  • Live Online

This course is taught online in real time.

 

Session Recordings will not be available for this course.

For a full list of profession pricing see below.
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Earn up to:
2026 Accreditation information is listed below, 2027 will be announced soon.
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Three Days

Please view the Schedule for a full description of the program.

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Overview

Next-level Practice in Palliative Care, offered through the Harvard Medical School Center for Palliative Care and formerly called Core Practice of Palliative Care, is an intensive, 3-day immersive course designed to meet the evolving educational needs and practice realities of interprofessional clinicians who care for patients with serious illness.  

Building on the longstanding legacy of Palliative Care Education and Practice (PCEP), this redesigned course represents the second part of a three-course series. The Foundations course is not a prerequisite, though experience caring for seriously ill patients and their families is strongly recommended if one has not completed Foundations. 

Next-level Practice in Palliative Care emphasizes deliberate skill expansion and applied practice through case-based discussions, role-playing with simulated patients, and guided reflection. Participants will have multiple opportunities for supported practice with structured feedback, allowing them to expand and hone essential primary palliative care skills required across care settings. Participants will strengthen their confidence in comprehensive assessment and management of patients and families living with serious illness, while broadening their interprofessional community, deepening self-reflection, and cultivating sustainability in their work. Clinicians will leave with practical skills and strategies they can immediately apply to day-to-day clinical practice. 

Course domains include:

  • Whole-Person Assessment and Management
  • Serious Illness Communication 
  • Community Building and Self-Reflection 

Next-level Practice in Palliative Care is designed for patient-facing clinicians from across disciplines and specialties who seek to expand and strengthen their palliative care skills. It is ideal for clinicians interested in enhancing their primary palliative care skills, palliative care champions, clinicians joining palliative care teams without prior fellowship training, and fellowship-trained clinicians seeking to refresh, deepen, and sustain their skills. 

Learners are not required to have taken Foundations in Palliative Care to enroll in this course, though a clinical background and experience caring for seriously ill patients and their families is strongly recommended. 

Learning Objectives

  • Apply a comprehensive, consistent framework to whole-person assessment and management (physical, psychosocial, spiritual domains).
  • Deliberately practice serious illness communication skills with simulated patient encounters, supported by structured feedback and coaching from peers and expert clinicians.
  • Strengthen a community of peers committed to providing high-quality care for people with serious illness.
  • Engage in reflective practices that support sustainability of meaningful, long-term clinical work.

Developed and Offered By:

Continuing Education courses are developed by faculty from Harvard Medical School's teaching hospitals and accredited by Harvard Medical School. This course is offered by Harvard Medical School Center for Palliative Care.

HMS Postgraduate Medical Education logo Continuing Education

Who Should Participate

Primary Care Physicians, Physician Assistants, Psychologists, Nurses, Nurse Practitioners, Specialty Physicians, Pharmacists, Social Workers, Chaplains, Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Others

Faculty

Harvard Medical School Continuing Education attracts the best and brightest faculty from all around the world. As a student in this course, you’ll have access to outstanding course directors and faculty.

 

Course Directors

Miranda Adelmann, MD

Matthew Bartek, MD, MPH

Sira Berté, MBA

Helen Bodell, MDiv

Keith Collar, MEd

Katherine Davidoff, MD

Alexis Drutchas, MD

Ellie Frechette, LICSW, MSW

Jenna Freitas, MSN, RN

Hayley Forbes, LICSW, MSW

Julia Gallagher, MD

Jonathan Jehle, NP

Shih-Ning Liaw, MD

Natsu Matsuya, MD

Damien Miran, MD

Sue Morris, PsyD

Bethany Myers, LICSW, MDiv, MSW

Ariela Orkaby, MD, MPH

Cristina Pozo-Kaderman, PhD

Kristen Uhl, PhD

Christina Ullrich, MD

Jamyl Walker, NP

Alexander Wolf, DNP, NP, RN

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Course Fees

Registration Details

You may register through our secure online environment and will receive an email confirmation upon receipt of your payment. Prices include CME credit, electronic syllabus. Session recordings will not be available for this course. At the end of the registration process, a $10 non-refundable processing fee will be added to your registration. 

Review the cancellation policy.

Accreditation

In support of improving patient care, Harvard Medical School is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

Live/Live Online Courses: To receive CME/CE credit, learners are required to complete the course evaluation. Once the evaluation is complete, you will be able to claim your credit and download your certificate. All evaluations and credit claims must be completed within 60 days of the course end date.

Online Courses: To receive CME/CE credit, learners must pass the course post-test and complete the course evaluation in order to claim credit before the final day of the accreditation period. Learners have access to the course for 60 days after the accreditation period has expired.

This activity is approved for 17.75 contact hours, of which 3.75 is eligible for pharmacology credit.

The National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) states that  AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ are acceptable for continuing medical education requirements for recertification. We would also suggest that learners check with their state licensing board to ensure they accept reciprocity with AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ for re-licensure. 

Successful completion of this CME activity, which includes participation in the evaluation component, enables the participant to earn up to 17.75 MOC points in the American Board of Internal Medicine’s (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program. It is the CME activity provider’s responsibility to submit participant completion information to ACCME for the purpose of granting ABIM MOC credit.

Successful completion of this CME activity, which includes participation in the activity, with individual assessments of the participant and feedback to the participant, enables the participant to earn 17.75 MOC points in the American Board of Pediatrics’ (ABP) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program. It is the CME activity provider’s responsibility to submit participant completion information to ACCME for the purpose of granting ABP MOC credit.

This activity meets the criteria of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine for 17.75 credits of Risk Management Study. This includes: 

  • 3.50 credit(s) of Opioid Education and Pain Management Training 
  • 14.75 credit(s) of End-of-Life Care Education 

This program has been approved for 17.75 Social Work Continuing Education hours for
relicensure, in accordance with 258 CMR. NASW-MA Chapter CE Approving Program, Authorization Number D 20184

Application for CME credit has been filed with the American Academy of Family Physicians. Determination of credit is pending. 

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada recognizes conferences and workshops held outside of Canada that are developed by a university, academy, hospital, specialty society or college as accredited group learning activities.

The American Medical Association (AMA) has an agreement of mutual recognition of continuing medical education (CME) credit with the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS). Additional information regarding this agreement may be found on the Union of European Medical Specialists website.

Competencies

This course is designed to meet the following Institute of Medicine Core Competencies:

  • Provide Patient-Centered Care
  • Work in Interdisciplinary Teams
  • Employ Evidence-Based Practice
  • Apply Quality Improvement

This course is designed to meet the following American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) / Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Educational (ACGME) competencies:

  • Patient Care and Procedural Skills
  • Medical Knowledge
  • Practice-Based Learning and Improvement
  • Professionalism
  • Systems-Based Practice
  • Interpersonal and Communication Skills

Disclaimer & Disclosure

CME activities accredited by Harvard Medical School are offered solely for educational purposes and do not constitute any form of certification of competency. Practitioners should always consult additional sources of information and exercise their best professional judgment before making clinical decisions of any kind.

Note: AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ is calculated based on submission of a preliminary agenda and may be subject to change.

In accord with the disclosure policy of the Medical School as well as standards set forth by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), course planners, speakers, and content reviewers have been asked to disclose any relationships they have to companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. In addition, faculty have been asked to list any off-label uses of pharmaceuticals and/or devices for investigational or non-FDA approved purposes that they plan to discuss.

Registration for courses managed by Harvard Medical School can only be completed through Harvard Medical School’s official registration portal: cmeregistration.hms.harvard.edu. Attendee registrations made through any other sites cannot be honored and will not be refunded. Please report any unauthorized websites or solicitations for registrations.

In order to comply with applicable U.S. export control and sanctions regulations, Harvard Medical School prohibits access to and use of Harvard Medical School educational offerings, programs and resources to individuals from certain sanctioned regions or who are otherwise subject to U.S. government sanctions, unless appropriate authorization is in place.

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