NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine is an excellent place to train to become a confident, empathetic, and highly skilled palliative care physician.

Our one-year Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship, accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), combines rigorous clinical training, interdisciplinary learning, and strong academic bioethics integration within NYU Langone Health. Fellows graduate our program prepared to lead in a field that demands expert symptom management, critical thinking, communication skills, ethical judgment, and the ability to care for patients across a wide range of diagnoses and settings.

At NYU Langone, fellows train on our inpatient consultation team, our standalone outpatient palliative practice, home hospice, long-term care, and inpatient hospice care units, gaining both excellent clinical preparation and a strong understanding of continuity across the course of serious illness.

Why Applicants Choose Our Program

Our fellowship is designed for physicians seeking high degrees of faculty mentoring and rigorous skill development in critical thinking and clinical reasoning, with strength in outpatient palliative care, interdisciplinary practice, and clinical bioethics.

Program Highlights

• two-fellow, one-year Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited training program based in a dedicated Division of Palliative Medicine and Bioethics
• broad clinical exposure across inpatient, outpatient, home hospice, long-term care, and inpatient hospice settings
• standalone outpatient palliative care experience with an interdisciplinary team and a diverse referral base
• strong continuity across inpatient, outpatient, home hospice, and facility-based care
• deep integration of academic and clinical bioethics throughout the year
• optional ambulatory palliative care pathway for fellows interested in outpatient-focused practice
• protected scholarly time for research and quality improvement
• opportunities for abstract development, publication, and national presentation
• simulation-based communication and clinical skills training
• close faculty mentorship within a leading academic health system

A Fellowship Designed for the Future of Palliative Medicine

Palliative care is expanding across disease types and increasingly into outpatient and longitudinal models of care. Our fellowship anticipates this development in the field.

Fellows care for patients with serious illnesses, including cancer and neurologic, cardiac, pulmonary, renal, hepatic, and complex multisystem disease. Fellows also follow patients across settings and transitions of care, developing the skills needed to be thoughtful, consistent, and patient-centered.

Fellows learn how palliative care connects across:

• inpatient consultation
• outpatient palliative medicine
• home hospice
• long-term care
• inpatient hospice and palliative care units
• home-based supportive care
• specialty and post-acute care settings

Program Mission

Our goal is to train outstanding palliative medicine physicians who are ready to lead clinically, ethically, and academically. We aim to:

• teach expert symptom management, prognostication, and care of medically complex patients
• develop fellows’ ability to navigate challenging moral and ethical questions
• train fellows to excel in interdisciplinary, team-based care
• prepare graduates for independent practice across the full range of palliative medicine settings
• cultivate future leaders in both traditional and ambulatory palliative care

Program Details

The fellowship accepts two fellows each year for a one-year training experience that is individualized, intensive, and highly mentored.

Under the leadership of Jeffrey T. Berger, MD, fellowship director and chief of the Division of Palliative Medicine and Bioethics, fellows receive expert training in the clinical, ethical, and interpersonal dimensions of palliative care.

From the start of the year, fellows are immersed in a learning environment that emphasizes:

• metacognitive skill development as a foundational clinical skill
• high-level pain and symptom management
• expert communication with patients, families, and teams
• complex decision-making in serious illness
• ethical analysis and bedside application of bioethics frameworks
• collaboration across disciplines and care settings

Our faculty includes physicians, nurse practitioners, and social workers with advanced palliative care expertise. Fellows benefit from close supervision, thoughtful teaching, and strong mentorship. A particular strength of the program is the integration of bioethics into everyday clinical care through didactics, rounds, bedside teaching, and case discussions.

Clinical Curriculum

Fellows rotate through clinical settings that reflect the full scope of modern hospice and palliative medicine, building both depth and versatility while caring for patients with varied diagnoses, prognoses, and psychosocial needs.

Training includes inpatient consultation, outpatient palliative care, home hospice, long-term care, inpatient hospice and palliative care units, and select specialty electives. Fellows also receive advanced pain and symptom management training, including experience with patient-controlled analgesia, ketamine, and methadone.

Adult Palliative Care Inpatient Consultation Service

Fellows spend 6.5 months on the adult palliative care inpatient consultation service at NYU Langone Hospital—Long Island. This high-volume, high-acuity service includes patients in:

• MICU, CCU, SICU, and the Neuro ICU
• oncology units
• general medicine services
• emergency department

Fellows work closely with faculty, house staff, consultants, nursing, pharmacy, and spiritual care while helping patients and families navigate symptom burden, serious illness communication, goals-of-care discussions, and ethically challenging decisions.

Ambulatory Palliative Care Rotation

Our fellowship offers a particularly strong outpatient experience through NYU Langone Palliative Medicine Associates—Mineola and NYU Langone Hospital—Long Island Palliative and Supportive Care Clinic.

This standalone outpatient palliative care practice is a major strength of the program. Fellows care for patients with a broad range of serious illnesses, and that care includes providing supportive oncology services to the campus oncology program. At the same time, they gain meaningful experience in longitudinal, clinic-based palliative medicine. Patients are referred from pulmonology, cardiology, neurology, hepatology, nephrology, oncology, gynecologic oncology, and other specialties.

Fellows spend half a day a week throughout the year in ambulatory palliative care, developing skills that are increasingly essential to modern practice.

Ambulatory Palliative Care Path

For fellows especially interested in outpatient palliative medicine, we offer an optional ambulatory path.

This six-week intensive program provides expanded experience caring for highly complex patients with all types of palliative diagnoses. Fellows work closely with the outpatient interdisciplinary team and gain additional exposure to telemedicine, outpatient workflows, longitudinal symptom management, and coordination across home care and ambulatory services.

The ambulatory path includes collaboration with NYU Langone Health Home Care and dedicated time in Perlmutter Cancer Center’s Infusion Center.

Home Hospice Rotation

Fellows spend two months on home hospice with Metropolitan Jewish Health Services (MJHS), caring for adult and pediatric patients in Queens and Nassau County.

Working with an interdisciplinary hospice team, fellows gain experience in end-of-life care in the home and learn the clinical and administrative aspects of hospice medicine, including certification and recertification of terminal illness, symptom management in the home, inpatient hospice admissions, respite care admissions, and family support.

Long-Term Care Rotation

During a one-month rotation at Calvary Hospital, fellows gain experience caring for patients in long-term and facility-based palliative settings, developing care plans that prioritize comfort, support patient-centered goals, and address complex needs.

Inpatient Palliative Care Unit Rotation

Fellows spend one month on an inpatient palliative care unit at Catholic Health Good Shepherd Hospice, strengthening their skills in managing patients with high symptom burden and advanced illness while working as part of an interdisciplinary team.

Elective Rotations

Fellows have four weeks of elective time to tailor the year to their interests and career goals. These are some popular elective options:

• outpatient medical oncology
• outpatient gynecologic oncology
• radiation oncology
• pulmonary hypertension
• interstitial lung disease
• congestive heart failure
• wound care
• interventional radiology

Research and Scholarly Activity

Fellows have protected time to pursue scholarly work aligned with their professional interests.

With faculty mentorship, fellows complete a quality improvement or research project and are encouraged to develop abstracts, submit manuscripts, and present at local, regional, and national meetings, including the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

Didactic Learning

Clinical training is reinforced by a comprehensive didactic curriculum built around adult learning principles. Educational experiences include:

• core lecture series
• case-based discussions
• journal club
• Interdivisional Journal Club with fellows and faculty from oncology, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and nephrology
• palliative care grand rounds
• interdisciplinary team meetings
• quality improvement and research sessions
• medical ethics didactics, consults, and workgroup meetings
• MICU ethics rounds
• flex learning sessions in which fellows design and deliver a didactic session to division faculty
• board review
• wellness programming

Fellows also participate in simulation-based training at NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine’s Simulation Center. These sessions focus on communication, family meetings, and management of palliative extubations, with faculty feedback augmented by AI-generated evaluation of simulation encounters.

Who Thrives Here

This fellowship is an excellent fit for physicians seeking:

• strong clinical training across multiple settings
• meaningful outpatient palliative care experience
• interdisciplinary education and close faculty mentorship
• rigorous preparation in metacognition, perceptive skill, process skill, communication, and complex decision-making
• deep exposure to bioethics in clinical practice
• training in a health system known for excellence and innovation

If you want a fellowship that is academically rich, clinically broad, and genuinely prepares you for the future of palliative medicine, this program stands out.

How to Apply

Applicants must have completed at least three years of ACGME-accredited residency training. We participate in the National Resident Matching Program and accept applications only through Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS).

Applications are typically accepted beginning in August for positions starting the following summer. Applicants should submit these items:

• fellowship application
• medical school transcript
• three letters of recommendation
• personal statement describing career goals and research interests
• CV
• United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1, Step 2, and Step 3 scores or COMLEX scores
• Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates certificate, if applicable

We encourage applicants to submit materials before the Match deadline, which is typically in early November.

Contact Us

For questions about the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship, please contact Melissa Mooney, program coordinator, at Melissa.Mooney@NYULangone.org or at 516-663-4680.

Our office is located at 222 Plaza Station North, Suite 400, Mineola, New York.

To learn more about graduate medical education (GME) at NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine, including resident and fellow benefits, policies, and services, please visit the GME page.