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Maximizing Pharmacocompetence in Pain and Symptom Management: Fundamentals for the Field
Effective pharmacologic management is foundational to high-quality hospice and palliative care. However, many clinicians—especially those new to the field or transitioning from other specialties—report limited formal education in pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, opioid conversion, and safe symptom management practices. This knowledge gap contributes to variability in prescribing habits, under-treatment or over-treatment of symptoms, and increased risk of adverse drug events.
Additionally, hospice and palliative care clinicians often face complex clinical scenarios requiring nuanced medication adjustments yet may lack the confidence or structured training to do so. Interdisciplinary team members may also have varying levels of pharmacologic literacy, which can hinder collaborative care planning and safe medication monitoring.
This activity addresses these educational gaps by providing a structured, interactive learning experience focused on foundational pharmacologic principles and practical clinical application. The goal is to increase competence in safe and effective symptom management through improved medication selection, titration, adverse effect mitigation, and team-based decision-making.
Target Audience
Interdisciplinary hospice and palliative care professionals, including:
- Physicians
- Advanced Practice Providers
- Nurses
- Pharmacists
- Other clinicians responsible for symptom management in seriously ill patients.
Learning Outcomes
Clinicians will apply learned pharmacologic principles to improve symptom control in patients with serious illness, reduce harm from medication-related adverse events, and foster safer prescribing across care settings.
By the end of this activity, participants will be able to:
- Apply pharmacologic principles, including pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, to select and adjust medications for common symptoms in serious illness, including pain, dyspnea, nausea, and agitation.
- Manage medication-related adverse effects, drug interactions, and safety concerns in vulnerable hospice and palliative care populations.
- Collaborate with transdisciplinary team members to optimize individualized pharmacologic care plans.
- Implement evidence-based strategies for monitoring drug therapy, assessing therapeutic efficacy, managing toxicity, and educating patients and families on medication use.
Disclosures
AAHPM endorses the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) Standards for disclosure and commercial support and endeavors to ensure balance, independence, objectivity, and scientific rigor for all accredited products or programs. All who are in a position to control or influence the content of an educational activity must disclose any relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.*Disclosure documents were reviewed for potential conflicts of interest and, if identified, were resolved prior to confirmation of participation. Only those who had no conflict of interest or who agreed to an identified resolution process prior to their participation were involved in this activity.
All editors, faculty and staff have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
*An ineligible company is defined as any entity producing, marketing, reselling, or distributing healthcare goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients.
Faculty
Mary Lynn McPherson, PharmD PhD FAAHPM
Alexandra McPherson, PharmD MPH
Staff
Emily Geary, BA
Julie Tanner, BSN RN-BC CHPN
Julie Bruno, MSW LCSW
Continuing Medical Education (CME)
The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) designates this live activity for a maximum of 3.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™.
Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. Successful completion includes attesting to meaningful activity participation and completion/submission of activity evaluation within the time frame designated.
Evaluation period closes October 31, 2025 11:59pm CT for claiming CME credit.
Maintenance of Certification (MOC) Recognition Statement
Through the American Board of Medical Specialties (“ABMS”) ongoing commitment to increase access to practice relevant Continuing Certification Activities through the ABMS Continuing Certification Directory, Maximizing Pharmacocompetence in Pain and Symptom Management: Fundamentals for the Field has been approved to meet the general CME requirements for the following ABMS Member Boards:
- Successful completion of this CME activity, which includes participation in the evaluation component, enables the participant to earn up to 3.75 MOC points in the American Board of Internal Medicine’s (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program.
It is the CME activity provider's responsibility to submit participant completion information to ACCME for the purpose of granting ABIM MOC credit. By submitting your evaluation, you grant AAHPM permission to submit completion information to ACCME for the purpose of granting respective BOARD MOC program credit or points as applicable. De-identified aggregated data from the evaluation may be used for research and/or publication and will conform to generally accepted standards of experimental design, data collection and analysis where indicated.
Evaluation period closes October 31, 2025 at 11:59pm CT for claiming MOC credit.
Available Credit
- 3.75 ABIM MOC
- 3.75 CME (physician only)
- 3.75 Participation