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Duke also has served as an online resource to facilitate access to helpful materials, such as The Unbroken Circle: A Toolkit for Congregations Around Illness, End of Life and Grief.³ The toolkit is provided by Project Compassion, a community-based education, advocacy, and support organization in Chapel Hill, NC, for persons dealing with serious illness, death, and grief. Reverend James L. Brooks, Executive Director of Project Compassion, says the toolkit aims to guide clergy and lay leaders in weaving end-of-life care into the fabric of congregational life. This resource also serves as a reservoir from which healthcare providers can draw practical guidance and encouragement; it is available for $34.99 at Amazon.com.

  Leadership in this field is not just institutional. The real groundbreaking activity occurs at the individual level, giving us the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of trailblazers. Such is the focus of the Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards, presented in January 2012 for the third straight year.⁴ These awards are given by the Cunniff-Dixon Foundation, whose mission is to enrich the doctor-patient relationship near the end of life, in partnership with The Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute engaged in pioneering work on end-of-life decision-making. Duke’s ICEOL managed the award nomination and selection process.⁵ Awards this year went to:
    • Janet Bull, MD, at Four Seasons, a nonprofit hospice and palliative care organization serving the Asheville area of western North Carolina;

    • Michael Rabow, MD, of University of California at San Francisco’s (UCSF) Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Care Center, one of the first outpatient, interdisciplinary palliative care services for cancer patients in the US;

    • Justin Baker, MD, of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for his valuable research on palliative care for children;

    • Jason Morrow, MD, PhD, at the University of Texas – San Antonio Health Science Center for his inspirational passion as an educator of physicians in medical ethics;

    • Theresa Soriano, MD, MPH, of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, for her advocacy leadership in championing the delivery of care to the underserved homebound patient.

  Read about them all. Follow their lead. Integrate their disciplines into your own work as you confront the daily challenges of delivering outstanding palliative care.

References

1. www.rwjf.org/reports/grr/051815.htm. Accessed April 6, 2012.

2. www.divinity.duke.edu/initiatives-centers/iceol. Accessed April 6, 2012.

3. www.divinity.duke.edu/initiatives-centers/iceol/resources/unbroken-circl.... Accessed April 6, 2012.

4. www.thehastingscenter.org/News/Detail.aspx?id=5703. Accessed April 6, 2012.

5. www.divinity.duke.edu/initiatives-centers/iceol/resources/cunniff-dixon. Accessed on April 6, 2012.

Also see the September 2009 Ostomy Wound Management “Continence Coach” for Dr. Muller’s column on compassionate end-of-life care.

Dr. Muller is the Executive Director, National Association For Continence (NAFC). The NAFC is a national, private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life of people with incontinence. The NAFC’s purpose is to be the leading source for public education and advocacy about the causes, prevention, diagnosis, treatments, and management alternatives for incontinence. This article was not subject to the Ostomy Wound Management peer-review process.