Empowering nurses with knowledge of end-of-life issues is essential to improving care for patients and families facing serious illness, says Betty Ferrell, PhD, RN, CHPN, FAAN, FPCN.

Ferrell spoke to nurses in Houston as well as those participating virtually from China, Taiwan, and Malawi as the “Caring at the Crossroads: End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) Training” conference got underway April 3 at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston. The event was co-sponsored by the Institute of Spirituality and Health at the Texas Medical Center.

“Palliative care is not just end-of-life care. It begins with diagnosis of serious illness,” she said. “We aren’t here only to care about the person with the diagnosis, we are here to care for the family.”

Ferrell’s presentation opened the two-day conference, through which nurses could earn up to 11 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development. She invited participating nurses to share stories of providing physical, psychological, social, and spiritual care to seriously ill patients and their loved ones.

Ferrell is the principal investigator of the ELNEC project, a collaboration between the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and the City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., where she is a professor and director of nursing research and education. Ferrell directs several other funded projects related to palliative care in cancer centers and quality-of-life issues.

Other conference presenters included Megan Lippe, PhD, MSN, RN, ANEF, FPCN, FAAN, a co-investigator on the ELNEC project and an associate professor at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTSA); Debbie James, MSN, RN, CNS, CCRN, a clinical assistant professor at UTSA; and Julie Kaplow, PhD, ABBPP, a professor at Tulane University Medical School and CEO of the Lucine Center for Trauma and Grief, a group practice that provides no-cost teletherapy to youth exposed to traumas and losses across Texas and Louisiana. Kaplow is also the executive vice president of the trauma and grief programs and policy at the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute and executive director of the trauma and grief center at the Hackett Center for Mental Health in Houston.

Associate Dean of Faculty Development Jessica Coviello, DNP, ANP-BC, FACC, FAAN, introduced Ferrell. She also thanked Cizik School of Nursing faculty and staff who served on the event planning committee: Karla M. Abela, PhD, RN, CCRN, CPN; Cavishia Roberson-Murray, BS, LPNII; Vaunette Fay, PhD, FNP, GNP; Kristin K. Ownby, PhD, RN, ANP-BC, AOCN, ACHPN, ACNS-BC; and Riza V. Mauricio, PhD, CPNP-PC/AC, CCRN, FCCM.

The End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) Project is a national and international end-of-life/palliative care educational program administered by City of Hope (COH) designed to enhance palliative care in nursing. Materials are copyrighted by City of Hope and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) and are used with permission.

Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.