Convenings

Overview

We see our convenings as conversations. They are chances to connect, to listen and to learn from each other. And to collaborate toward greater impact.

Serious Illness Care Education Forum - Tufts University School of Medicine

Jun 25, 2024

This session of the Serious Illness Care Education Forum featured Dr. Tamara Vesel from Tufts University School of Medicine. She led a great discussion about An Innovative Workshop to Teach Primary Palliative Care Communication Skills to Fourth-Year Students at Tufts University School of Medicine. One particularly interesting approach of the workshop was using professionally trained actors as faculty in the course to teach students about non-verbal communication skills. Now required coursework for all fourth-years, the medical students responded very positively to the workshop and reported using many of the skills they had learned in subsequent clinical rotations.

Serious Illness Care Education Forum - UMass Chan Medical School

Apr 24, 2024

For the April session of our Serious Illness Care Education Forum, our colleague Dr. Jennifer Reidy and her team from UMass Chan Medical School presented on a new educational initiative for first-year medical students on Communication Skills & Fundamentals of Therapeutic Relationships. They also shared about established, but ever evolving, educational experiences focused on palliative care and caring for the seriously ill.

Serious Illness Care in Graduate Nursing Education: A Conversation About Best Practices

Mar 28, 2024

The Nursing Taskforce held a webinar in March highlighting findings from the group’s statewide survey of graduate nursing programs in Massachusetts assessing serious illness curricula and palliative care content.

Serious Illness Care Education Forum: Harvard Medical School

Feb 13, 2024

The forum, led by Megan LaPorte, brings faculty members from across Massachusetts together to learn about serious illness care undergraduate medical education as well as to catalyze collaboration across institutions. For the February session, our colleagues Dr. Kirsten Engel and Dr. Dorothy Tolchin from Harvard Medical School presented about their latest educational endeavors.

2022 Coalition Summit

Nov 3, 2022

On November 3, 2022, we virtually came together for our Seventh Annual Summit focused on community and connection in serious illness care. We were thrilled to announce that Michael Curry, president and CEO of the Massachusetts League for Community Health Centers, has joined our advisory board. We also shared the Coalition's 2023-2025 strategic plan highlighting our mission to strengthen communication, collaboration, and connection across health care systems, communities, patients, and clinicians. There was a panel discussion exploring community health worker models and another panel pressing on how we can think differently about community voices in research. Through these discussions and more, we will continue to sharpen our unique role as the Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care.

2021 Coalition Summit

Oct 14, 2021

On October 14, 2021, we virtually came together to reflect on the findings from our latest nationwide research. We also heard updates from our Public Policy Working Group, Medical Schools Collaborative. and Nursing Schools Taskforce. Through presentations, discussions and breakouts, we explored what it means to shift to an equity-first approach in all our work to improve communication and care for people and families facing serious illness.