About Kathleen

I am a clinical nurse in the Medical-Surgical Intensive Care Unit at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center (UCSF). Like you, I've struggled when a family member asks at 2AM, "Is my Dad going to be OK? What would you do if this were your father?" Nothing in our education prepares us for such moments. Six years ago at UCSF, a group of physicians, nurses and a hospital chaplain convened to develop and implement a training program to meet these needs. The program is called IMPACT-ICU: Integrating Multidisciplinary Palliative Care into the ICU. It is now in place at all University of California medical centers, is being taught in the Washington, DC area, and an online resource based on the program is under development. Last July, Dr. Wendy Anderson and I gave a taste of the IMPACT-ICU workshop in the AACN webinar "Palliative Care in the ICU: Critical Communication Skills." My co-facilitators and I are very excited to bring the full training to this year's NTI. I know you will leave with new skills to have in your toolbox when those tough situations come up back on the unit! Aside from IMPACT-ICU, I teach on end-of-life issues in the Critical Care and Palliative Care Resource Nurse training programs and initiated the ICU Bereavement Program at UCSF. In the last few years, I've also been working on several multicenter quality improvement projects addressing goals of care, respect and dignity, and end-of-life care. I look forward to hearing your stories and sharing ideas at NTI!