Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship

Train to assess and treat patients using a whole-person approach to care, addressing physical, emotional, spiritual, cultural and existential causes of suffering. Special attention is placed on caring for people who are underserved, given that UNM is a safety net institution in a rural and ethnically diverse state.   

Become a palliative care fellow at UNM Hospital—the only academic medical center in New Mexico, and the only Level 1 Trauma Center in the region. 

The 12-month Hospital and Palliative Medicine (HPM) Fellowship is accredited through the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).  

During your fellowship, you will train alongside experts in a range of patient care settings, including:  

  • Inpatient consultations at University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH) 
  • Clinical rotations at Raymond G. Murphy VA Medical Center Veterans Affairs hospital 
  • Pediatric experience through UNM Children’s Hospitals’ Mariposa Program 
  • Outpatient palliative continuity clinic 
  • Palliative home visits  
  • Hospice experience 

UNMH and the VA Medical Center are the largest teaching hospitals in the state. Both serve as referral centers for a geographic area that includes all of New Mexico, as well as western Texas, southern Colorado, and eastern Arizona.  

How to Apply

Three fellowship positions are available, filled through the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP).  

Applications are accepted through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) and follow national guidance regarding our application and interview timelines. 

We begin receiving applications on July 15. 

Eligible applicants must be board-eligible or board-certified in any of the following primary specialties:  

  • Internal Medicine 
  • Anesthesiology 
  • Family Medicine 
  • Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 
  • Psychiatry and Neurology 
  • Surgery 
  • Emergency Medicine 
  • Radiology 
  • Obstetrics and Gynecology 

New Mexico is a majority-minority state with Hispanic persons and American Indians constituting the majority of the population in the state. We are committed to seeking and educating applicants from diverse backgrounds. 

For more information about Hospice and Palliative Medicine Match, visit the AAHPM website. 

Our program strives to foster clinical excellence, intellectual curiosity, cultural humility, critical reflection and compassion through clinical experience, evidence-based practice and mentorship, with a goal of developing palliative medicine physicians who have lifelong learning, teaching and self-care skills. 

July August September October
UNMH Inpatient Consult  VA Hospital Long Term Care  UNMH Inpatient Consult  Palliative Associates and Hospice of New Mexico 
November December January February
QI Project/Elective  UNMH Inpatient Consult  Mariposa Pediatric Hospice  Ethics/ Elective 
March April May June
UNMH Inpatient Consult  Radiation Oncology / Comprehensive Pain Clinic  UNMH Inpatient Consult  VA Hospital Inpatient Consult/ Presbyterian Hospice 

 Curriculum 

  • Adult inpatient service: 27 weeks 
  • Hospice including inpatient, outpatient and pediatric: 10 weeks 
  • Long term care/ inpatient hospice: 4 weeks 
  • Electives: 4 weeks 
  • Ethics: 2 weeks 
  • Pain clinic: 2 weeks 
  • QI project: 2 weeks 
  • Radiation oncology: 1 week 
  • Fellows also rotate through an outpatient continuity clinic for a half day each week 
  • Some clinic sessions are home palliative visits 

Three weeks of vacation may be taken during any of the rotations; a maximum of two weeks can be taken at once. 

Train future teachers, innovators and leaders in palliative medicine by modeling use of evidence-based medicine and active learning and teaching in formal and informal settings.  Advocacy for patient-centered care is a tenet in our program, with a focus on cross-specialty collaboration and professionalism. 

The fellowship begins with a core educational “Boot Camp” series covers key topics in palliative medicine.  

  • Formal weekly didactic sessions taught by faculty in palliative medicine and specialist faculty 
  • Journal Club sessions held each month, with fellows presenting an overview of an article of their choice 
  • A “Residents as Educators” (RAE) course taught by Department of Internal Medicine faculty culminates with the fellow teaching a didactic session while being observed by the RAE faculty 
  • Guided mentoring of individual scholarly projects 
  • Attend the AAHPM Annual Meeting. Reimbursement for costs is available.

The program trains physicians in interdisciplinary approaches to patient care through interdisciplinary team teaching and exposure to a variety of hospice and palliative medicine environments at the University of New Mexico, the New Mexico Veterans Administration Medical Center and in the New Mexico community. 

Fellows work with our board-certified palliative medicine physicians who have: 

  • Primary boards in: 
  • Internal medicine 
  • Emergency medicine 
  • Family medicine 
  • Surgery 
  • Secondary boards in: 
  • Oncology 
  • Surgical oncology 
  • Geriatrics 

The team also includes palliative medicine trained advanced practice nurses, social workers, a chaplain, registered nurse, administrative support persons and the Director of UNM’s Art in Medicine program.