EPH, Hospice Institute work to improve access to care

The John D. Thompson Hospice Institute in Branford, Conn., and experts from Yale's Department of Epidemiology and Public Health have launched a three-year educational program to improve access to palliative care for the terminally ill.

"Our partnership with Yale will provide a much-needed educational effort about hospice and palliative care," says Rosemary Johnson-Hurzeler, R.N., M.P.H. '75, the institute's president and chief executive officer. "The care provided, as well as the related educational and research programs, will focus on life, not death," she adds.

According to Elizabeth H. Bradley, Ph.D., assistant professor of public health at Yale, the project is offering a formal education program to physicians, nurses and other health care providers at acute-care hospitals in Connecticut. "We will measure the impact of the educational program on medical professionals' knowledge and attitudes about hospice, as well as utilization of hospice services," says Dr. Bradley, research director for the hospice project. The educational program was designed by the John D. Thompson Hospice Institute for Education, Training and Research Inc. (named for a late Yale EPH faculty member) and its affiliate, the Connecticut Hospice, the nation's first hospice program. In future years, the two groups anticipate making this educational program available to all hospitals in Connecticut.