COMFORT Communication - An Introduction to Palliative Care Communication

Webinar Overview

Led by an internationally known leader in palliative care, this presentation will address how nurses can overcome the challenges of communicating with seriously ill patients and their family caregivers. Find out more about an approach to communication called COMFORT, which was developed by communication scholars (Wittenberg-Lyles, Goldsmith, and Ragan) and can be applied to nursing practice. Make plans now to join us and learn some practical ways to enhance your communication skills to better support patients and families.

This Webinar is hosted by the Graduate Nursing Student Academy (GNSA). For more information on the GNSA, visit www.aacn.nche.edu/students/gnsa.

Webinar Speaker

Betty Ferrell, PhD, RN, FAAN, FPCN, CHPN
Professor and Director of Nursing Research and Education
City of Hope

Dr. Ferrell has been in nursing for 37 years and has focused her clinical expertise and research in pain management, quality of life, and palliative care. Dr. Ferrell is the Director of Nursing Research & Education and a Professor at the City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, California. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and she has over 370 publications in peer-reviewed journals and texts. She is Principal Investigator of a Research Project funded by the National Cancer Institute on “Palliative Care for Patients with Solid Tumors on Phase 1 Clinical Trials” and Principal Investigator of the “End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC)” project. She directs several other funded projects related to palliative care in cancer centers and QOL issues. Dr. Ferrell is a member of the Board of Scientific Advisors of the National Cancer Institute and was Co-Chairperson of the National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care. Dr. Ferrell completed a Masters degree in Theology, Ethics and Culture from Claremont Graduate University in 2007. She has authored ten books including the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Nursing published by Oxford University Press (4th edition published in 2015). She is co-author of the text, The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Nursing published in 2008 by Oxford University Press and Making Health Care Whole: Integrating Spirituality into Patient Care (Templeton Press, 2010). In 2013 Dr. Ferrell was named one of the 30 Visionaries in the field by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.