ACP and Serious Illness On-Demand Webinars
Improving Serious Illness Care for Critical Access Communities
With speakers Caroline Hurd, MD, of UW/Harborview, and Sharmon Figenshaw,
ARNP. People in rural areas of Washington with serious illness may not
have access to a comprehensive range of palliative care and hospice
services. This webinar helps teams think through how they might better
support their patients at the primary care level with some high-yield
palliative care skills, and how to access training for these skills. We
also explore models for delivering important supportive care, with
examples of using team members of diverse professional backgrounds, who
can, with training, provide effective supportive care for individuals with
serious illness in critical access areas of the state. Co-sponsored by
Whitman Hospital & Medical Clinics, with a grant from Friends of Hospice
of the Palouse, and the Washington Serious Illness Care Coalition.
(Originally recorded on Dec. 5, 2024)
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POLST Conversation Guidance for Clinicians
Join the Washington Serious Illness Care Coalition for a free two-part
webinar series on clinician guidance for discussing Portable Orders for
Life-Sustaining Treatment with your patients.
Part 1, Sept. 12: “When, and How, to Know if POLST is Right for My
Patient”
Ginny Heinitz, palliative care registered nurse for Virginia Mason,
discusses when and how to use POLST. You will learn how, when properly
completed, the POLST form can effectively guide emergency care. She also
discusses some pitfalls and mistakes to avoid.
You will learn how to identify patients who might benefit from a POLST and
how to assess their readiness to discuss their preferences for
life-prolonging care. You will see how to use your clinical expertise to
build rapport and normalize the conversations that can help patients be
ready for your recommendation to complete a POLST.
(Originally recorded on Sept. 12, 2024)
Part 2: “May I Recommend…?”
Sharmon Figenshaw, ARNP, discusses how to make recommendations related to
POLST for your patients who will benefit from having this form completed
to provide orders for emergency care. As a follow-up to part one, this
webinar offers guidance on how you as the clinician can make the choices
in Section B of the POLST form accessible to your patients, and how you
can use the choices of Section B to simplify (and make less scary) the
choices in Section A (Full Code vs DNAR).
There is a demonstration of how to ask questions that help your patients
think about what levels of care (from Section B) they would find
acceptable, and how to use your clinical expertise and judgement in
helping patients address how to have more control over the care they
receive at the end of their lives. You will see how to use the POLST
Clinician Guide to ensure that the POLST forms you complete are valid and
actionable for your patients.
(Originally recorded on Sept. 26, 2024)
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New Washington State Advance Directive and other Advance Care Planning
Resources
Overview of the changes to the WA state advance directive, now a WSMA
supported form, and other valuable resources to help capture a person’s
preferences for care in serious illness, at end of life and after death.
Offered by Hilary Walker, System ACP Program Manager PeaceHealth and Chair
WSICC with other special guests
(Originally recorded on June 13, 2024)
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POLST and Advance Care Planning in Washington State: Where We Are Now
Sharmon Figenshaw, ARNP, palliative care nurse practitioner and co-chair
of the Washington POLST Task Force, and Hilary Walker, OTL, Chair or WA
Serious Illness Care Coalition and Program Coordinator for Advance Care
Planning with PeaceHealth Medical System, review state wide initiatives,
updates and resources that physicians, advanced practitioners, and other
members of the health care team can access to promote advance care
planning and goals of care conversations.
They offer insights into “the right document, at the right time, for the
right person” and invite participation in open discussion about how
advance care planning documents and POLST are currently being used in your
medical systems.
(Originally recorded on Feb. 29, 2024)
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Recognizing Inequities in Serious Illness and End-of-Life Care
Physicians, health care professionals, and members of the public join
together for a webinar on enhancing communication and connection about
serious illness, end-of-life, and after-death issues—presented by the
Washington Serious Illness Care Coalition.
Hope Wechkin, MD, FAAHPM, HMDC—WSICC chair and medical director of
EvergreenHealth Hospice— re-introduces the coalition and its new mission,
vision, values, and strategic goals.
Keynote speaker, Edwin Lindo, JD—assistant dean for social and health
justice in the Office of Healthcare Equity and faculty member within the
Department of Family Medicine at the University of Washington School of
Medicine—explores our biases and identify ways racism impacts the care
patients receive. You will develop tools to advocate for people from
marginalized communities, provide culturally sensitive care that honors
people’s values and beliefs, and deliver high quality, compassionate care
during serious illness and at the end of life.
We close the webinar with a panel of physicians, health care
professionals, and advocates who share their unique expertise and discuss
how to ensure that people of every background, culture, and identity can
have their needs met and their wishes explored and honored.
Panelists
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Mabel Bodell, MD, Nephrologist/Transplant Nephrologist, Clinical
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine/University of Washington;
Medical Director, Acute Dialysis Unit, Confluence Health, Wenatchee
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Raleigh Bowden, MD, Director, Okanogan Palliative Care Initiative;
Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar, 2019-2022
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Eze Oluo, Projects Manager, Permanente Medicine; Member, BIPOC Health
Careers Ecosystem
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Moderator: Devyani Chandran, PhD, Director, Palliative Care Institute;
Associate Professor, Health and Community Studies, Western Washington
University
WSICC, formerly known as the Washington End-of-Life Coalition, was formed
in the early 1990s, and is jointly sponsored by the WSMA Foundation and
the Washington State Hospital Association. The coalition is a broad-based
group of individuals and organizations dedicated to helping patients,
physicians, clinicians, and caregivers improve the way we prepare for and
treat serious illness and end-of-life care. This free webinar serves as
part of our mission to promote education and conversations about living
and dying in Washington state.
(Originally recorded April 29, 2022)
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Advance Care Planning Documents – Get to Know the New Advance Directive
and WA POLST
The new and improved Advance Directive and Washington POLST forms will be
released in early April. Join Sue Bergmann, MBA, BSN, senior director of
Honoring Choices Pacific Northwest; Sharmon Figenshaw, ARNP, co-chair of
the WA POLST Task Force; and Jessica Martinson, director of continuing
professional development at the WSMA for a tour of the new documents.
Honoring people’s values, goals, and preferences is the cornerstone of our
work. The purpose of Advance Directive and Washington POLST documents is
to ensure people’s future medical decisions are accurately reflected in
enforceable documents. Speakers review key changes that streamline,
clarify, and modernize the documents.
(Originally recorded on April 7, 2021)
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