News — SALISBURY, MD---Dr. Katie Hinderer believes it鈥檚 important for people to think and talk, in advance, about end-of-life care.
The Salisbury University nursing professor recently was interviewed by Medscape, a leading clinical news Web site, about her research on the sensitive subject.
The article stemmed from her selection as one of only four Research Poster Award recipients at the National Teaching Institute held by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses in Boston. The award also allowed her to deliver an oral presentation about her work.
鈥淥ur society is so death-denying,鈥 Hinderer explained. 鈥淵et in my experience, a lot of older adults are very open to talking about death.鈥
With this in mind, Hinderer worked with SU student Patty Rubin to plan and implement an educational community workshop on advance directives. Over 80 people attended.The workshop included presentations to explain the legal and medical terms used on advanced directive forms and also encouraged family communication.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really about talking to loved ones about what they would want to happen in an end-of-life situation if they could not speak for themselves,鈥 she said.
Hinderer found that almost all workshop attendees believed it 鈥渋ncreased their understanding of advanced directives.鈥 In addition, more than 91 percent of participants surveyed said they would either complete a plan or talk to a loved one about it.
The initial work by Hinderer and Rubin, who has since graduated with her B.S. in Nursing, was funded by SU鈥檚 Guerrieri Summer Research Program. Hinderer鈥檚 poster was titled 鈥淎ssessing an Education Intervention to Improve Advance Directive Completion.鈥
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