Courses | HMS Center for Palliative Care

Harvard Medical School Center for Palliative Care is where serious learners jumpstart the next phase of their clinical journeys in palliative and hospice care.

Foundations of Palliative Care

Next course: November 5-6, 2026

HMS CPC Member Chaplain Sarah-Byrne Martelli teaches Foundations of Palliative Care (now available as this live, virtual course).

This two-day, live online intensive is designed for all members of interdisciplinary adult and pediatric palliative and hospice care teams who want to level up their knowledge of the fundamental elements of palliative or hospice care.

Foundations enables serious learners to build essential skills in whole person assessment and care, state-of-the-art pain and symptom management, and serious illness communication.

Led by an exceptional, interdisciplinary group of expert faculty from across the Harvard Medical School network, learners will engage with their peers and build a shared foundation for effective, compassionate palliative practice, appropriate for all care settings and patients.

Join us for this intensive and become part of a global community of learners who are continually deepening their knowledge and refining their palliative and hospice practice.

Continuing education credits are available for most disciplines (see full list).

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Next-level Practice of Palliative Care (formerly Core Practice of Palliative Care)

Next course: January 12-14, 2027

Next-Level Practice is a three-day, live online intensive appropriate for all members of adult and pediatric palliative and hospice care teams — participating as individuals or as a group — ready to enhance their practice skills.

Learners will bring to the course their experience in palliative and hospice care and their drive to strengthen their practice through a distinctive, rigorous professional development experience. The course is designed for serious learners who seek to jumpstart their primary palliative care skills, refresh earlier training, or prepare for leadership roles.

Next-Level Practice offers clinicians the opportunity to further refine the skills introduced in the Foundations course or learned through clinical practice (Foundations is not a prerequisite). Led by an exceptional, interdisciplinary faculty, Next-Level Practice delves more deeply into the essential skills that are introduced in Foundations, including whole person assessment and care and state-of-the-art pain and symptom management. In addition, one full day’s focus on serious illness communication includes in-depth work toward the use of expert, compassionate approaches that all patients and families deserve at the end of life.

This fast-paced, and immersive experience features:

Deliberate skill development through interactive case-based sessions;
Skills practice with simulated patients; and
Structured feedback and guided reflection.

Attending this intensive will also give you access to a generous and growing global community of lifelong learners dedicated to elevating the practice of palliative and hospice care.

Continuing education credits are available for most disciplines.

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Clinical Complexity and Systems-Level Leadership

Next course: To be announced

Clinical Complexity and Systems-Level Leadership is a three-day, live online intensive for that focuses on addressing clinical complexity, program leadership, and systems-level care in all hospice and palliative settings.

Building on the knowledge gained in the Next-Level Practice course, this interactive master class covers the full range of hard and soft skills needed to run, manage and scale high-quality programs. Developed for interprofessional leaders from all disciplines, this fast-paced, immersive experience builds champion-level capacities to advocate with C-Suite executives and motivate clinician peers.

Join us for this three-day, career-changing experience and become part of a leadership community seeking to build their knowledge and skills in managing palliative and hospice care programs.

Continuing education credits are available for most disciplines.

MGH Palliative Care and Geriatric Medicine Grand Rounds Course Bundle (On-Demand)

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Stay current with the latest in palliative care research and best practices and earn CEUs on your schedule through the Massachusetts General Hospital Palliative Care and Geriatric Medicine Grand Rounds. This series of 15 one-hour, asynchronous virtual sessions offers an accessible way for every member of hospice and palliative care teams to level up their knowledge.

In each session, accomplished speakers from the Harvard Medical School network and from across the country speak to the highest priority issues in caring for patients and families at the end of life. Sessions span a wide range of topics related to palliative care and geriatric medicine to inform effective, patient-centered practice based on leading research. Topics include:

Bridging the Gap: Palliative Care for Adults Living with Sickle Cell Disease
Chronic Pain in Aging and Serious Illness: Clinical Practice Pearls
Honoring Wishes on an Unclear Path: Aging and Palliative Care in the ICU
What About a Nerve Block? Interventions for Cancer-Related Pain
The Science and Art of Resilience: Lessons Learned from Patients, Families, and Communities
Enhancing Coping in Patients with Advanced Cancer
Moving Beyond ‘Tell Me More’: Level Up Your Approach to Cross-Cultural Interactions
Naming the SHAME: Talking about Substance Use Disorder and Complex Pain in Palliative Care
Spiritual Care for Generalists and Specialists: Integrating Research and Practice
Shackled at the End of Life: Palliative Care in the Context of a Growing Incarcerated Geriatric Population
Artificial Intelligence in Serious Illness Care
Strengthening Palliative Care Partnership with Speech Language Pathology: Reframing the Narrative for Seriously Ill Patients with Dysphagia & Communication Vulnerabilities
Palliative Care for People with Dementia
What We Learn from Listening
Microaggressions and its Macro-impact: Surviving Difficult Spaces

Enjoy maximum flexibility and the ability to customize your learning experience! Learners can purchase individual sessions or a discounted bundle of the full 15-part series. Group discounts are also available – we encourage teams to enroll in this course together to benefit from the shared experience and from gaining a common language for palliative care and geriatric medicine.

Continuing education credits are available for most disciplines (see full list).

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