Palliative care works alongside a patient’s regular treatment to improve the quality of their life. It is all-inclusive; focusing on both physical and emotional needs to make a patient as comfortable as possible, as well as to provide support to the patients’ family.
The presentation and discussion that followed covered palliative care strategies and how they could be implemented in a hospital, nursing facility, or home health care program environment. “Listening to the perspectives from the different healthcare settings was very informative,” said one attendee. “I never really understood the difference between palliative care and hospice until today,” explained another guest.
Featured speakers at the event included Dr. Elisa Gil-Pires, VP Medical Affairs/Medical Director for CESLC, Dr. Jaya Vijayan, Medical Director, Palliative Care, at Holy Cross Health, Dr. Gosiah Sullivan of Holy Cross Health, Kelly Arthur, Health Quality Innovators, and Margie Hackett, RN, Transitions Guide Nurse Manager at Suburban Hospital.
Following this forum, CESLC will be hosting the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship program beginning in December 2016. The program will train two NIH fellows per year at the CESLC campus. The fellows will shadow CESLC’s experienced practitioners, to develop a deep, practical understanding of the medical, psychological, and even spiritual aspects of team-based, holistic approaches to palliative medicine and hospice care.
For additional information on palliative care at CESLC visit smithlifecommunities.org.
