Community Education
Are you interested in learning more about end-of-life care? HopeHealth is committed to providing education to our patients, their families and the clinicians in our community.
Resources for our Community
As part of our mission as a community-minded, non-profit organization, HopeHealth provides education for people with an interest in serious illness and grief support. Our rich curriculum is designed for:
- Healthcare professionals. Our courses, certifications and conferences cover the latest trends and research in dementia and Alzheimer’s, advance care planning, symptom management, complex care conversations, and end-of-life care and planning.
- Members of the community. If you are caring for an aging parent, spouse, sibling or friend with a chronic illness, or if you’re dealing with the loss of someone dear to you, we can help.
- Students in our community. HopeHealth is proud to offer internships in nursing, social work, grief support, spiritual care and in many other areas. We partner with the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Salve Regina, Rhode Island College, University of Connecticut, University of Rhode Island, Walden College, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and more for clinical rotation placements. To learn more, contact us at Information@HopeHealthCo.org.
Learn more about HopeHealth.
Community Education Programs for Clinical Professionals
As a not-for-profit organization, our mission includes enriching the depth of knowledge surrounding serious illness, hospice, palliative and home care as well as grief support. The following courses are part of our community education curriculum. HopeHealth consistently innovates new education courses. Please share with us if there is a topic you'd like us to teach about. Contact our community education team at (800) 338-6555. View our virtual education offerings for clinical professionals.
Hospice: A Special Way of Caring
Learn the unique benefits of hospice care, when a patient qualifies and how the clinical team supports individuals and families.
1 hour, 1 CE available for RN/LPN, SW
Palliative Care: Living Your Best Life
Explore how palliative care can improve quality of life by anticipating, preventing and treating symptoms within a supportive family centered approach to care.
1 hour, 1 CE available for RN/LPN, SW
Managing Pain at End of Life
This course reviews best practices for identifying and managing pain. Utilizing case scenarios participants will learn to formulate an effective plan of care. Discussions will explore barriers to adequate pain management including the myths and facts about morphine.
1 hour, 1 CE available for RN/ LPN, SW
Having the Conversation
Participants will learn how to best initiate difficult conversations about goals of care, advance directives and terminal illness. We will discuss methods to determine an individual and family’s wishes as well as how to introduce hospice services.
1 hour, 1 CE available for RN/LPN, SW
Hospice Symptom Management Part 1
This course provides a comprehensive review of the most common symptoms that cause discomfort at end of life. You'll receive assessment tools and case scenarios to promote group interaction and discussion. Our "part one" course focuses on assessing and treating pain, dyspnea and anxiety.
1 CE available for RN/LPN
Hospice Symptom Management Part 2
This course is part of a series that can be provided in two separate one hour sessions. We review how to treat the most common symptoms that patients face at end of life. Our "part two" of this course focuses on how to assess and treat nausea/vomiting, delirium, agitation and constipation.
1 CE available for RN/LPN
Dementia: Understanding the Aging Brain
This presentation is intended to educate healthcare professionals on the effects of dementia on the brain and the five senses, how to apply this knowledge to care provided and how to utilize the positive physical approach to connect with the person prior to providing care.
2 hours, 2 CE available for RN/LPN and SW
Designing Meaningful Dementia Activities Part 1 & Part 2
Understanding the person living with dementia's GEM state, personality type and life history will allow for adjustments to the activity that provide a sense of meaning and joy through their participation in that activity. In this program we will discuss how to identify the GEM state and activities that fit. Part 1 focuses on early to moderate stages of dementia. Part 2 focuses on moderate to late stages of dementia.
1 hour, 1 CE available for RN/LPN, SW
Comfort Feeding
Develop an understanding of the non-verbal cues associated with comfort feeding. Learn what makes food appealing, how to regulate food temperature and best techniques for hand feeding.
30 minutes
Virtual Dementia Tour
The insight provided by the Virtual Dementia Tour® (VDT) will change how you interact with memory-impaired individuals. Research supports that quality of life improves when caregivers and professionals are better educated and equipped to address the challenges associated with disease progression
1.5 CEs available with the follow-up dementia training for Administrators and RN/LPN
Managing Challenging Behaviors
This interactive program focuses on recognizing common behavioral triggers, and developing techniques for adapting our own reactions to achieve more positive outcomes with combative or resistant individuals. Techniques adapted from Teepa Snow training on caring for patients with dementia.
1 hour
The Grief Journey of the Dementia Caregiver
We will discuss how grief changes for dementia caregivers at each stage of the disease—from anticipatory grief to bereavement. We’ll examine how to best provide grief intervention and support for caregivers and their families.
1 hour
MOLST: How and When to Complete
This session focuses on explaining when it is appropriate to complete a MOLST (Medical Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment), how to complete it, section by section, and why it is important to have one.
1 hour
Compassion Fatigue for Providers
Learn how to define compassion fatigue, identify the stages in yourself or in your peers and gain important tools for recovery.
30 minutes
Complex Care Conversations
Communicating About Serious, Progressive Illness
Overview: Complex Care Conversations is an interactive, small-group curriculum for clinicians who treat patients dealing with serious, progressive illnesses such as heart failure, cancer and dementia.
This program offers guidance on approaching goals-of-care conversations more easily and effectively. These important discussions are frequently sensitive and should not be delayed or postponed. The sessions offer a framework for navigating conversations to elicit patients’ values and preferences in a way that is mutually transformative for clinicians and patients.
Learn about the course’s credit designation.
Program audience: Practice teams including physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, nurse care managers, medical assistants, social workers and other team members as well as public health professionals.
Objective: Give clinicians key tools for effective communication and learn skills of balancing patients’ values with the medical reality when recommendations are given to patients and families.
Providers will learn how to properly bill and code for these reimbursable activities. In addition, participants will receive education on bedside ethics when faced with surrogate decision makers, as well as prognostication that will enable them to guide patients and families in effective ways as patients approach the end of their life. Lastly, participants will learn techniques to reduce burnout and compassion fatigue in caring for very complex and fragile patients, creating a climate of healing for all involved.
This program is supported by funding from the Rhode Island State Innovation Model Test Grant, the Rhode Island Department of Health, University of Rhode Island’s Geriatric Education Center and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island.
Complex Care Conversations is held at 1085 North Main Street, Providence, RI.
Click on the date you want to register for:
Speaker's Bureau
At some point, many of us will be called upon to care for someone who is seriously ill. To help people get through these trying times, HopeHealth leads educational talks that can be held at community organizations, senior centers, schools, faith communities and area businesses.
Led by our community educators, these presentations deliver informative, thought-provoking information and can be tailored to the specific audience. We offer general topics relate to hospice, dementia and Alzheimer’s and other subjects.
Learn more or sign up
If your group is interested in learning more, please email Information@HopeHealthCo.org.