End-of-Life Care Practitioner Program

TESTIMONIALS FROM GRADUATES

About the Course
About the Faculty
Benefits to a Healthcare Organization or Local Community

About the Course

"This course is a rare jewel, an intensive learning experience that amplifies practitioner skills, and restores the heart of healer. I strongly recommend this course for physicians or health practitioners interested in end of life care."
Geoff Galbraith MD, Vice President, Quality Improvement, Kaiser Permanente, Hawaii

"I know a lot about technique, pain control and symptom management. This program is about discovering the place where spirit and soul infuse the sacred art of dying. This course is an answer to a nurses prayer said at the bedsides of the dying. This course is really important."
Mary Clark RN, Nurse Educator, Assante Hospice Medford, OR

"My expectations were exceeded. This was the most meaningful, applicable formal training I've received since I learned to read and write."
Patricia Wudel, Executive Director Josephs House, AIDS Residence, Washington, DC

"Medical training is about mastery, about curing and fixing often taught in environments of competition and criticism … but this course is about living in mystery. This program has liberated and broadened the way I practice medicine. This humanistic approach I've learned is changing the way I create curriculum for medical students."
Norma Hirsch MD, Hospice Physician, Des Moines, IA

"The training was broader and more ecumenical than I expected."
Sue Brooks RN, Hospice Nurse, Portland, OR

Program graduate Rev. LeAnn Stubbs, Campus Minister, addresses fellow EOL Care Practitioners

"There is the content part of the course and then the 'meta—experience of immersion' which encouraged my ongoing transformation in a very fruitful experience."
Mark Gardner, Hospice Chaplain, Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care, Santa Barbara, CA.

"It was a transformational experience that far exceeded my wildest imagination or expectations."
Sandra Lee MSW, Hospice Social Worker, Kaiser Hospice, Vallejo, CA

"Thank you, thank you, thank you. Forever grateful, forever changed."
Patty Winter RN, EOL Counselor, Mercy Medical Center& Hospice, Roseburg, OR

About the Faculty

"The training was magnificent. The faculty were excellent role models, compassionate, attentive, knowledgeable and committed. Thank you for bringing us together and creating the space for us to grow and evolve."
Ramita Bonadonna RN, Folly Beach, SC

"The presentation of the course in all its components was profoundly respectful. It had such unusual integrity."
Patricia Wudel, , Executive Director Josephs House, AIDS Residence, Washington, DC

"The diversity and depth of the faculty was really incredible. I especially appreciated their commitment to practice service."
Jeanne Dussault, Social Worker, Great Fall, MT

"The faculty was all great. I really mean that. They made the program. Their compassion and passionate commitment to us was awesome."
Bill Stevens, Chaplain, Lincroft, NJ

"I honestly have never met a more amazing group of people. The faculty totally captivated me."
Rev. LeAnn Stubbs, Campus Minister, Des Moines Iowa

"They are all wonderful, knowledgeable and present. What a gift the faculty gave us."
J. Earl Rogers, Bereavement Counselor, British Columbia

Benefits to a Healthcare Organization or Local Community

"The staff at my agency lobbied to have my EOL training underwritten so that I could bring back what I learned to them—nurses, social workers, counselors and chaplains. After completing the EOL training, I met with agency supporters of Visiting Nurse & Hospice Care of Santa Barbara. On learning how I was implementing my training by a teaching a series of EOL modules to staff and volunteers... one of them wrote a check covering the entire tuition!

"My belief is that prospective EOL students can get tuition support from their employers if they are willing to bring back what they have learned for the benefit of those they work with."
Mark Gardner, Hospice Chaplain, Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care, Santa Barbara, CA.

"Just today, the hospice I have worked for this past 5 years has hired me as the first EOL Counselor in Oregon. This is my official title! Through a series of effortless events my supervisor allowed me to create the job description/hours/salary. I am deeply grateful to my supervisor who is fearless in her willingness to try alternative approaches to traditional hospice care. The new position includes grief counseling & teaching, community education and special assistance to individuals or families experiencing a complicated dying process."
Patty Winter RN. EOL Counselor, Mercy Medical Center& Hospice, Roseburg, OR

"Brainstorming about how we can take this new role into our community expanded my ideas and possibilities for private practice."
Mary Koopman RN, Hospice Nurse, San Francisco, CA

"When I returned from the EOL training my supervisor called me into her office. She said, '...something has changed, you have a new way of understanding this work and we want you to teach it to our staff and community.' My hospice created a new position for me as RN Community Educator with a new budget and an open agenda. Now we are teaching courses to nursing home staff and creating public dialogue in our community on issues related to end-of-life care. I have lots of ideas and much more confidence about accomplishing them."
Mary Clark RN, Nurse Educator, Assante Hospice Medford, OR

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