Education in Palliative and End-of-life Care for Emergency Medicine (EPEC - Emergency Medicine) is an adaptation of the original EPEC Curriculum that was designed to teach the essential clinical competencies in palliative care to professionals who work in the emergency department (ED). This curriculum was written and edited by emergency physicians and nurse educators with the goal of addressing issues that are specific to the practice of emergency medicine. Linda Emanuel, MD, PhD, is principle investigator and Tammie Quest, MD, is the co-investigator and project director. This project is supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Educational topics include quick steps for performing a rapid palliative care assessment in the ED; formulation of trajectories and prognoses; the care of hospice patients, patients who have cancer, and patients who experience chronic pain; and family-witnessed resuscitation. Emergency clinicians are taught how, when, and why to contact hospice or a primary care provider; how to communicate bad news to patients and families; and how to assess patients for psychological, spiritual, and social needs. Techniques for teaching palliative care to other emergency practitioners are also taught.

EPEC - Emergency Medicine is a high impact, conference-based education dissemination project that utilizes the train-the-trainer model developed in the original EPEC. Conference participants learn palliative and end-of-life care skills and principles and are also trained in teaching techniques that will allow them to train colleagues and students at their home institutions.

One goal of EPEC - Emergency Medicine is to work with the directors of emergency medicine residency programs to ensure that physicians-in-training are exposed to the core principles of palliative and end-of-life care so that they will have the skills and knowledge necessary to care for patients they will encounter in the ED. To date, the EPEC - Emergency Medicine has created EM trainers in 50 residency programs across the United States.

 

The EPEC - Emergency Medicine faculty comprises a diverse set of emergency department professionals. The workshop sessions are taught by physicians, nurses, lawyers, and chaplains who have experience in emergency medicine and palliative care.

The inaugural ‘Become an EPEC - Emergency Medicine Trainer’ Conference was held in Chicago, IL. EPEC - Emergency Medicine trained the first set of trainers at this conference on August 3 & 4, 2007 and over 40 physicians, nurses, and social workers attended the two-day event. This was the first education in palliative and end-of-life care conference specifically geared to emergency department providers and it drew participants from across the United States and Canada.

‘Become an EPEC - Emergency Medicine Trainer’ Conferences have been held in Chicago, IL (September 5-6, 2008; July 10-11, 2009; April 30-May 1, 2010) and in New Orleans, LA (February 27-28, 2008). Check our conferences page for information on upcoming EPEC - Emergency Medicine conferences.