HONORING NURSES’ UNIQUE CONNECTIONS TO PATIENT CARE

Kathy Hankel will tell you, emphatically, that “nurses have a rapport and trust with patients unlike any other in the health profession.” As a nurse and nurse educator, in a career that spans more than thirty years, Kathy has taken part in countless intimate patient conversations, and fully understands the unique role that nurses have with respect to patients and their families. She will tell you how often “when patients or family members are at their most vulnerable moments, they talk with us about their hopes and concerns,” and, she adds, “especially their fears about getting the right care and making sure their choices and preferences are followed.”

With 24/7 direct patient contact, nurses are uniquely positioned to help patients engage in the meaningful conversations that are the foundation of good health care planning and end-of-life care. Because nursing education is grounded in compassion, nurses play a crucial role in helping patients with the difficult conversations that progressive illness and end of life care call for. Nurses can readily connect patients and families to care planning resources as a means to ensure their choices for care are known as well as honored.

Utilizing her broad experience in Nursing Education, Kathy’s focus is to “help nursing schools integrate health care planning and end of life issues into the curriculum” and  “to prepare nursing students for this vital role”.  Kathy is working directly with area nursing schools, integrating health care planning into the theoretical framework, and where students can apply these skills directly in clinical practice. She also has extensive consulting experience with curriculum development and has co-authored, and successfully implemented, an Advance Care Planning in Nursing Education curricula. Kathy is quick to point out that “the model is flexible and progressive and can be tailored to any level of nursing education,” including “any health care professional’s continuing education program.”

As a Honoring Choices Co-Director, and Director of Nursing Education and Curriculum Development, Kathy believes that as our network of Community Partners grows it should include “our nursing schools, community colleges, senior continuing care facilities,” as well as “all health care professionals who interact directly with patients” to integrate health care planning and end of life issues into their programs.

Given her background, Kathy believes our educational and professional institutions can take the lead in a wider community effort to deliver quality, coordinated care that honors a patient’s values and choices.

Learn more about integrating health care planning and end of life conversations into your educational programs by contacting Kathy Hankel at info@honoringchoices.com, or sending Kathy an email via the Contact Us page.