To describe a novel longitudinal multimodal curriculum in neuropalliative care with focus on communication and assess its feasibility and preliminary efficacy.

Neuropalliative care is a multidisciplinary field that focuses on improving communication about quality of life and end-of-life for all people affected by neurologic disease.¹ Teaching neuropalliative skills is a key objective for Neurology residencies, and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉú (ACGME) requires proficiency in palliative care and “psychosocial support and counseling for patients and families.”^2,3 Most neurology program directors rate residents’ neuropalliative skills as low^3,4 and neurology residents are requesting more teaching about communication.⁵

We designed and implemented a multimodal curriculum focused on neuropalliative communication skills for neurology residents at a single academic institution over the course of their 3-year training. Residents undergo (a) 3 communication workshops using VitalTalk® modules and simulated patient encounters, (b) 3 or more observed clinical encounters with standardized faculty feedback, and (c) 3-5 neuropalliative care lectures annually. To assess the impact on learners’ self-assessed confidence in neuropalliative skills, we developed pre and post workshop surveys.

In 2021, 14/20 eligible (not post-call, sick, or on vacation) residents attended our workshops and completed the pre-survey. Most residents (93%) agreed or highly agreed to “I feel confident in recognizing family emotions” (93%), while less than half (42%) agreed or highly agreed to “I feel confident responding to family emotions.” A key concern from residents in the open comments was responding to emotions. Results from the post-workshop survey are forthcoming and will be complete by Feb 2022.

Our longitudinal multimodal neuropalliative care curriculum can be easily adopted by other programs. The program’s feasibility was demonstrated by its successful implementation and high attendance among eligible participants.

Sources available for submission upon request