Autopsy Conference Collaboration: A Memorable Inter-Professional Learning Opportunity

• Published in: Journal of pain and symptom management 2017-02, Vol.53 (2), p.387-388
• Main Authors: Blackstone, Karen, MD, Dinescu, Anca, MD, Paal, Edina, MD, Cobbs, Elizabeth, MD
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anesthesia & Perioperative Care; Autopsies; Autopsy; Biological organs; Coaching; Conferences; Death & dying; Geriatrics; Health care industry; Hospitalized; Learning; Pain Medicine; Palliative care; Patient communication; Patients; Teams; Trainees
• ISSN: 0885-3924; 1873-6513
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2016.12.168

Autopsies provide valuable information for families and health care providers. Palliative Care teams are increasingly involved in the care of dying hospitalized patients and may be catalysts in requesting autopsies and organizing conferences. A palliative provider speaks with most families after the death, to share condolences of the team and discuss autopsy benefit. A coaching tool has been developed for decedent affair staff. When family consents, a post-autopsy conference is coordinated with invitations to treating hospitalist and specialist teams, as well as to all inter-professional trainees rotating in palliative care/geriatrics. A palliative medicine physician and a pathologist lead a thirty-minute conference in the morgue including discussion of the patient's clinical course and a "hands-on" review of the gross pathologic findings of the major organs.