Hospice Dinner

One of the best resources for dying patients are the local community hospice programs that allow patients to receive quality of life care, with emphasis on comfort care rather than on prolonging life. One of the failings of physicians now is that we fail to use our resources adequately: we send patients too late to hospice, or we fail to send them at all. We are not educated about the dying process adequately. We lack information and knowledge. The purpose of this project is to disseminate information to medical students early in their medical career, and in such a form that they will receive it. Lame, but we believe the best way to capture a medical student's attention is through the stomach!

Project Description
Hospice dinner is a joint venture between an AMSA chapter and your local hospice. The AMSA chapter provides the logistical planning and advertising and the hospice provides the content of the program. AMSA and hospice can negotiate who pays for the food. The idea is to invite the first year medical students to a dinner sponsored by AMSA and the hospice. While eating, the students will listen/watch a presentation by the hospice about what palliative medicine is and how they can be involved. It can be negotiated what the content of the program will be: whether it will be heavily anecdotal or will involve some medical physiology/pharmacology, etc. about the dying process.

Project Timeline

Two months in advance: Approach hospice with idea. Negotiate a date (preferably after exams!). Discuss funding. Receive all necessary permissions from school.

One and half months in advance: Book location. Begin calling local restaurants for price quotes. Fundraise if necessary.

One month in advance: Finalize logistics (time, place, date). Finalize budget (important!). Discuss content of program.

Two weeks in advance: Begin advertising- design flyers, announcements, invitations, etc. Begin working on who will work at the dinner: who will set up, serve food, bartend, and clean up afterwards. Obtain in writing confirmation of location.

One week in advance: Get estimate of attendance from your classmates. Finish financial transactions - book the food. Make sure they know time, place, and date. Have food brought 1/2 hour early, so you will have time to set up. Make sure all deposits have been paid. Finalize content of program.

One day in advance: Reconfirm by phone all the principals: call the caterer, the location, the hospice. Make sure all Audio-Visual equipment/tables/chairs will be in place. Make sure all those who are working the dinner know their assignments. Make sure someone knows how to run the AV equipment.

Day of program: Be on hand to smooth out any details. Do a final day of advertising: make announcements to remind people that this is the night. Supervise the work crews. Rejoice that your project is nearing completion. Make sure that everyone who worked was acknowledged. Make sure clean-up goes smoothly: large garbage bags are helpful. Receive back any deposit money. Make sure books are balanced. Make sure anything borrowed returns to proper owner.

Day after program: Send thank you notes to all involved: caterer, hospice, anyone who helped you. Bask in your glory for having pulled this off! And save your notes on what you did to pass on to future project directors.