ABSTRACT
End-of-life and hospice care challenges the emotional strength of all social workers who provide care to dying individuals and their family members. These challenges may be amplified for social work interns who are not only new to the field of social work, but also new to the field of hospice and palliative care. Many of these students are enrolled in social work programs that lack adequate course offerings in the subject of death and dying (Huff, Weisenfluh, Murphy, & Black, 2006). This lack of formalized instruction can often require additional support and supervision from field instructors and individual faculty members. As a result, there are key areas where social work students feel underprepared—such as discussing the transition from curative care to palliative care, advocating around symptom management and pain control, and providing education about the illness’s likely progression (Jones, 2005).
