Award Winning Team to Present at the National Rural Health Meeting

Two representatives of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom Palliative Care Initiative (NEKPCI), Dr. Denise Niemira and Joanne Root, RN, North Country Hospital, won awards of excellence for the poster presentation at the Annual Assembly of American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine/Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association in Tampa, Florida and are invited to present a workshop at the National Rural Health Association in May.

Newport, VT - The subject of dying is not one that is easily discussed in our culture. Yet dying is a fact of life. What if there were loving, caring people available to help the dying and their families face the approaching end of life journey; community people who enhance the quality of life and the quality of dying by easing suffering, promoting choices, and providing comfort to all involved; people who understand life in the rural community and the inevitability of facing the loss of a loved one.

Just such a group exists here in the Northeast Kingdom and recently they received a citation for excellence at the Annual Assembly of American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine/Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association in Tampa, Florida. Two representatives of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom Palliative Care Initiative (NEKPCI), Dr. Denise Niemira and Joanne Root, RN shared the poster presentation entitled Collaborating to Bring a Palliative Care Service to the Rural Community to those attending the 4-day conference. Out of more than 80 poster presentations outlining end-of-life care, the NEKPCI presentation was one of a half-dozen posters cited. In addition to this honor, Dr. Niemira and Joanne Root have been accepted to present a palliative care workshop at the National Rural Health Association in May. The presentation is a practical how-to for developing a palliative care service for the rural community – one that links all providers of end-of-life care.

According to the poster abstract from the conference, “The Initiative is a partnership of nursing facilities, homecare/hospice nurses, hospital, bereavement support groups, community response teams, and volunteers working together to build a community-based model of end-of-life care that improves care for the dying through education, communication, and institutional change.” Serving some 200 families annually, the NEKPCI embraces the hospice philosophy of total care - physical, emotional, psychosocial, and spiritual.

According to Dr. Niemira, “The purpose of NEKPCI is to bring everybody who provides services related to end-of-life care together at the same table. The core group meets monthly to plan projects and see what the needs of the community are and to see what the needs of the institutions are.”

At the conference, Dr. Niemira and Joanne also made available copies of tools that have been developed over the 10-year existence of the Initiative, as well as information about the Palliative Care Cart. The Palliative Care Cart allows for a common approach to the delivery of palliative care in the member institutions. It is used for patients and their families and contains comforting items such as a cassette player and tapes, lotions, aromatherapy, inspirational books, and religious items, to name a few. NEKCPI also has a video available that members made to teach the community about end-of-life care. Joanne has offered to go anywhere in the community to show the video.

When asked to share her thoughts about the Northeast Kingdom Palliative Care Initiative, Joanne Root said, “I would like to say thank you to the fantastic collaborative involvement of all who have participated and helped to make this a wonderful community effort to provide better end-of-life care for all.”

Denise Niemira summed up the mission of this caring group of volunteers very aptly when she said, “The NEKPCI is trying to build a palliative care program that addresses the needs of the rural area in a way that reflects the spirit of the community.”

Thanks to the efforts of the members of the NEKPCI, not only does our little rural community have an end-of-life support program, but we have a program that other areas of the country would like to explore. Good things happen in small communities.

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