Assessing the Accessibility of Content for Hospice and Palliative Fellowship Programs (Preprint)

BACKGROUND There has been an increasing trend in patients seeking palliative care in both inpatient and outpatient settings. A majority of the US population that receives palliative care is over 65 years old. It is projected that the geriatric population will increase 55% by 2030. As the geriatric population continues to increase, it becomes important to have a sufficient number of high-quality trained hospice and palliative medicine (HPM) physicians. To increase the supply of HPM physicians, HPM fellowship programs need to have effective recruitment strategies. Websites can be effective tools in engaging and recruiting applicants. OBJECTIVE This study evaluates the accessibility and website content of HPM fellowship programs. METHODS A list of accredited HPM fellowship programs was obtained from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Education Public Directory in May 2020. Programs without a website were excluded. Website accessibility and content evaluation were assessed. Evaluation of website content was broken down into three domains that previous studies have shown are information that applicants seek on websites- Program Content, Applicant/Recruitment Content, and Education Content. RESULTS 151 HPM websites were included for analysis. On average, program websites were easily accessible within 1 click from a ‘Google’ search. Upon assessing program content, all programs provided a description. 74.2% of websites provided the program director’s name. Less than 50% of websites provide the program’s address, phone number, or email-address. 44.4% provided the names of the current fellows, and 66.2% provided a faculty list. Upon assessing application/recruitment content, 46% of websites provide information about general application requirements. While most websites do not provide the number of letter of recommendations needed, 42.4% ask for three letters. 13.2% of websites indicate a submission deadline. Upon examining education content, 66.9% of websites provided information about didactics and 55.0% provided information about journal club. Roughly 74% provided information about rotation schedule, clinic responsibility, and research opportunities. CONCLUSIONS There remains a paucity in valuable web-based information to applicants of HPM fellowships. HPM fellowship program websites need to be updated to help applicants make informed decisions and increase recruitment into HPM fellowship programs.