"Living a Good Life ... at the End of Life"

Nebraska Hospice and Palliative Care Association

and the Nebraska Coalition for Compassionate Care

Embassy Suites, Lincoln, April 14-16, 2004

Keynote Presenters

Karen Stanley, RN, MSN, AOCN, FAAN - Karen completed her undergraduate work in sociology at Wesleyan College, her nursing undergraduate work at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, and her graduate work in oncology nursing at the University of California, San Francisco. Retired as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in palliative care from Kaiser Permanente, Southern California, she currently serves as a consultant on cancer care, pain management, and end of life issues. She has lectured extensively nationally and internationally on palliative care concerns. Publications include a chapter on Ethical Considerations in the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Nursing, co-authorship of the Pain Management Handbook, W.B. Saunders, a chapter on pain management in the nursing textbook, Fundamentals on Nursing: Caring and Clinical Judgement, and three chapters on communication, family issues, and psychologic support in Palliative Practices from A-Z, Oncology Nursing Press. Karen was featured as a panelist on the PBS show, Before I Die: Medical Care and Personal Choices, served as a Outreach Associate for the Moyers’ project, "On Our Own Terms. Moyers on Dying", and was selected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing for her contributions to end of life care. Ms. Stanley is founder and co-chairperson of the Claremont Coalition Concerned with End of Life Issues and part of the California statewide steering committee, The California Coalition for Compassionate Care. Karen was chosen by the California State Assembly’s Select Committee on Palliative Care to participate in a mediated dialogue on physician assisted suicide and other end of life issues. Ms. Stanley has a long history of service on behalf of the Oncology Nursing Society and currently serves as the Society’s president-elect.

John W. Finn, MD - John W. Finn, MD has been associated with Hospice of Michigan since 1986, currently serves as Chief Medical Director of the Maggie Allesee Center for Quality of Life. In addition to his clinical practice, he is a distinguished Fellow and Immediate Past President of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and is a clinical associate professor at Wayne State University School of Medicine. As an educator and degreed trainer of EPEC (Education for Physicians in End of Life Care), Dr. Finn teaches the hospice philosophy and how to prognosticate terminal illness and communicate the news to the patient’s family, while still preserving hope. He is a founding member of the Academy of Hospice Physicians and an advisor to the "Pursuing Excellence at the End of Life" research program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. His involvement as a member of the National Institute of Health Committee for Pain and Palliative Care has helped shape standards of care for the terminally ill nationwide.

Ira Byock, MD - Ira Byock, MD, serves as Director of Palliative Medicine at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and faculty member at Dartmouth Medical School. Board certifications include Family Practice, Emergency Medicine (1988-1998) and Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Nationally, Dr. Byock directs the Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life Care research program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He is co-founder and principal investigator of Life’s End Institute: Missoula Demonstration Project, Inc, a community-based research and quality improvement organization focused on end-of-life experience and care. Dr. Byock serves on a number of association boards of directors including the National Health Council. He is a past president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (1997), and recipient of the Academy’s Distinguished Service Award in 2002. He received the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization prestigious Person of the Year Award (1995), and the National Coalition of Cancer Survivorship’s Natalie Davis Springarn Writers Award (2000). Dr. Byock is a frequent keynote speaker at state, national, and international meetings and he has had frequent appearances on national television and radio. He has published numerous academic articles on ethics and practices of end-of-life care. He serves on numerous advisory committees and the editorial boards of several professional publications, including the Journal of Palliative Medicine. Dr. Byock’s essays and op-eds have appeared in regional and national papers, including the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. His first book, Dying Well (Putnam/Riverside, 1997), has become a core reading on the subject. His upcoming book, The Four Things That Matter Most, is written for the general public and will be published in March of 2004 by The Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster.

Jon Bruning, Attorney General, State of Nebraska - In 2002, Jon Bruning was elected as the youngest Attorney General in Nebraska’s history. Before becoming Attorney General, Bruning served as a state senator from 1996 to 2002. One focus of his agenda as Attorney General is better consumer protection for Nebraskans. His articles have been published in the Labor Law Journal and the Court Review. A fifth-generation Nebraskan and Lincoln native, Bruning received his Juris Doctorate with Distinction from the University of Nebraska College of Law in 1994.