Mission Statement:
Improvingpalliative care for patients with life-threatening illness across the lifespanand their families by generating palliative nursing leaders through education,practice, and research.
What is Palliative Care?
Palliative care is patient and family-centered care that optimizes quality of life by anticipating, preventing, and treating suffering. Palliative care throughout the continuum of illness involves addressing the physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual needs and facilitating patient autonomy, access to information, and choice (National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care, 2013).
What is Palliative Nursing?
Palliative nursing is an evidence-based nursing practice that includes the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of human responses to actual or potential life-limiting illness within the context of a dynamic caring relationship with the patient and family, in order to reduce or relieve suffering and optimize health. The essence of palliative nursing is honoring the individual patient in her or his journey; attending to psychological responses to the end of life, social and cultural factors, and spiritual aspects of care.
Current Nursing Research in the Areas of Palliative Care
Jiyoon Jang is a doctoral student in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University. She has professional experience in geriatric care and has a deep passion for providing effective, individualized care for older adults. She graduated with her MSN at Yonsei University in 2023. She expanded her knowledge by participating in gerontological research projects at the Mo-Im Kim Nursing Research Institute in Korea, which conducts various research projects on aging health science. During this time, she was involved in various research using information and communications technology (ICT) that focused on behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). During her doctoral program at Emory, she plans to develop strategies for addressing health problems among older adults with dementia and reducing their caregivers’ burden.
Naziya is a current PhD student interested in palliative care and quality of life outcomes of patients with end stage renal disease who are receiving dialysis. Currently, she is studying the influence of symptoms, functional status, and social vulnerability on the healthcare use of patients receiving dialysis. She received her BSN from Emory University in 2016 and her MSN in Nursing Education from Duke University in 2019.
Haerim is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Nursing Excellence in Palliative Care and received her PhD in Nursing (with a focus on oncology symptom science.) She earned her PhD from Emory University and her MSN and BSN from Seoul National University, South Korea. Her program of research seeks to address cancer-and treatment-related symptoms and optimize sexual health and the quality of life in individuals with cancer no matter where they are in the phase of illness. Her dissertation study examined sexual dysfunction and its association with obesity and the gut microbiome pre- and post-radiotherapy in women with gynecologic cancer, and her current research is focused on improving sexual health in older adults with cancer.
This program is to fertilize innovation in palliative care research and help accelerate development of palliative care research programs for junior investigators and student researchers. A call for proposal is announced annually.
Previous recipients of Pilot Grant:
Annually, the Center invites an eminent scholar in the fields of palliative care to inspire faculty, students, and local healthcare communities with a vision of excellence in palliative care education, practice, and research. This event typically occurs in April.
2023 Fuld Distinguished scholar:
Dr. Megahni at the University of Pennsylvania has been invited to visit Emory University in April (4/18 to 4/19), 2023. She is a renowned palliative care researcher specialized in pain and symptom management in the context of social inequality and disparities.
Salimah has a long-standing commitment to advancing the field of palliative care. Between 2005-2007, she served on the Taskforce to Improve Quality at the End of Life for Pennsylvanians and Patient Life-Sustaining Wishes Advisory Committee to assess the feasibility of POLST paradigm in Pennsylvania. Between 2012-2014.
Building Competences and Leadership
The Fuld Fellowship Program in Palliative Care was established in 2015 with generous gifts from the Fuld Trust. The goal of this program is to prepare nursing students to be leaders in improving quality of life for people with serious illnesses and their families by focused palliative care education, interdisciplinary practice, and research activities in their nursing curriculum. The program is led by co-directors, Shella Chawda, NP, and Debbie Gunter, FNP-BC, ACHPN, who are dedicated to nursing excellence in palliative care education and practice.
For more information about this program visit the Fuld Palliative Care Scholarship Page
During MN
Observation only
Inpatient consults (10hr)
Clinic (10hr)
Hospice (10hr)
During MSN
Inpatient palliative care observation: 80hr at the end of the first semester in the fall
Outpatient palliative care: 60hr in the spring
Hospice: 60 hr in the summer
CAPS module completion as directed
*Location and timing/semester are subject to change.
Here is a sample of a plan of study for this program.
9th Cohort (2024-2026)
Past Cohorts
8th Cohort (2023-2025)
Elizabeth Brown, Mengqi Li
7th Cohort (2021-2023)
Ashley Rose, Kendra Taylor, Kristie Erin Barnes
6th Cohort (2020-2022)
Nicole Alexander, Bobby Antalek
5th Cohort (2019-2021)
Ashley Cohen, Calla Michalak
4th Cohort (2018-2020)
Haley Lynn, Hannah Spero
3rd Cohort (2017-2019)
Rachel Behrend, Emily Buzhardt
2nd Cohort (2016-2018)
Maggie Carrillo
1st Cohort (2015-2017)
Andrea Brubaker, Phillip Dillard, Allysa Rueschenberg
August 2024 – July 2025
2nd Wednesday/Monthly
Center for Nursing Excellence in Palliative Care
Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing
Emory University
1520 Clifton Road
Atlanta, GA 30322-4027
Room 324
Felecia L. Stevenson
Program Coordinator/ Center for Palliative Care
Cell: 404-901-4280
Tel: 404-712-9909
Email: felecia.l.stevenson@emory.edu
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