{"id":21435,"date":"2026-11-04T11:10:37","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T16:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/?p=21435"},"modified":"2026-11-04T11:10:38","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T16:10:38","slug":"uri-college-of-nursing-to-establish-interdisciplinary-palliative-care-program-to-train-students-healthcare-professionals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/2026\/11\/04\/uri-college-of-nursing-to-establish-interdisciplinary-palliative-care-program-to-train-students-healthcare-professionals\/","title":{"rendered":"URI College of Nursing to establish interdisciplinary palliative care program to train students, healthcare professionals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Palliative Care Month events raise awareness of upcoming program, help \u2018normalize\u2019 process of caring for serious illness, death<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Serious illness is part of the human experience, affecting not only those living with illness but also their families and loved ones. Most people face it more than once\u2014caring for a loved one in their hardest moments, and eventually in their own lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People often need an extra level of support, not just in management of physical pain and disease, but also in dealing with the psychological, spiritual, cultural, even legal challenges surrounding serious illness and death. Palliative care experts provide that support and help people through the natural course of illness and death, according to University of Rhode Island College of Nursing Associate Professor Sean Reed<\/a>, who joined the university in fall 2026 as the college\u2019s Weyker Chair for Palliative and End-of-life Care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe mortality rate of death is 100%, so what can we do that makes that more memorable, instead of something we want to institutionalize or forget about,\u201d Reed said. \u201cIt\u2019s trying to make this natural process of the human experience of health, illness, death, and dying more normalized. We really seek out meaning to the illness. When that happens, it\u2019s the antithesis of suffering, and healing can begin. It\u2019s a conduit toward healing, finding meaning in the illness, and really working through where the patient and the family are in that journey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the college\u2019s leader in palliative care, Reed is developing a nurse-led enterprise in palliative care to promote the discipline and help fill the shortage of healthcare professionals who practice it in the region. He is creating an interdisciplinary undergraduate minor within the college, as well as graduate-level certificates and continuing education courses to prepare current healthcare professionals for palliative and hospice care. Reed is developing the courses to submit to the URI Faculty Senate this semester, with plans to begin the classes in summer or fall 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe overall goal is to bring programming to URI around palliative care and to magnify it, and become an enterprise. At some point, we aim for the URI College of Nursing to be known for palliative care in New England,\u201d said Reed, who is staging events on campus during November\u2019s Palliative Care Month<\/a> to help raise awareness of the critical health discipline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first event on Wednesday, Nov. 4., includes a film screening to introduce people who may not be formally connected to palliative care to the discipline. Scheduled for 5 p.m. in White Hall room 113 on the Kingston Campus, the film tells the story of a patient with a potentially fatal illness, how the person\u2019s life went after they were diagnosed, and how they found meaning through all of it. The screening and following dialogue with Reed aim to help people understand the human experience from diagnosis, through all the treatment challenges, and finally the end of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second event, scheduled for Monday, Nov. 16, 5 p.m. in White Hall room 113, is a more formalized introduction to palliative care\u2014what it is and what it is not, Reed said. Through punctuated lecturing and open dialogue, Reed will help the audience reflect on their feelings regarding illness and end of life, and their impressions of palliative care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Palliative Care Month events, while raising awareness and improving understanding of the discipline among audience members, will also help Reed formulate the curriculum and design the classes currently in production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt helps me understand where the audience is, what their thinking is, and where to take it from there to help guide us in this entire palliative care enterprise at URI,\u201d Reed said. \u201cBringing it to URI is a really great opportunity for students become more acclimated and comfortable around palliative care, and to help gauge the interest among undergrad students. I can get a temperature level for these students who might be entering into nursing or psychology, philosophy, the arts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The enterprise will be truly interdisciplinary, reflecting real-world circumstances. It is not uncommon for a nurse in palliative care to act as a \u201csocial worker, chaplain, and psychologist all at once,\u201d Reed said. The program will offer education across several tracks: pharmacopalliation, which may be of interest to nursing and pharmacy students; emotional and psychosocial support, including expressive therapy, for psychology students and arts students interested in music or art therapy; and an ethical and spiritual track for students drawn to philosophy or to questions of faith and meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe idea with palliative care is we want to make serious illness \u2014and even death and dying \u2014something to remember, not something to forget\u201d Reed said, noting palliative care can be provided at any stage of the illness, and at any age. \u201cPeople tend to equate palliative care with death and dying only. That is just a fallacy. Why is it we only get this great interdisciplinary support at the end stage of life when we could apply it earlier on? The criteria for palliative care is very simple\u2026 a diagnosis that affects quality of life. I wish we could get to a point where death and serious illness are just part of the human experience. What can we do to make that as comfortable as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Palliative Care Month events raise awareness of upcoming program, help \u2018normalize\u2019 process of caring for serious illness, death Serious illness is part of the human experience, affecting not only those living with illness but also their families and loved ones. Most people face it more than once\u2014caring for a loved one in their hardest moments, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1710,"featured_media":21436,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1710"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21437,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21435\/revisions\/21437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}