The inaugural United States World Hospice and Palliative Care Day Celebration: A virtual coming together

Abstract

Objective On October 10, 2020, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Supportive Care Service hosted their first-ever United States (US) World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (WHPCD) Celebration. The purpose of this article is to describe the US inaugural event in alignment with the broader goals of WHPCD and provide lessons learned in anticipation of the second annual conference to be held on October 5–6, 2021. Methods Description of the inaugural event in the context of COVID-19 and WHPCD, co-planning conference team reflection, and attendee survey responses. Results The Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance initially launched WHPCD in 2005 as an annual unified day of action to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care around the world. The US-based innovative virtual conference featured 23 interprofessional hospice and palliative care specialists and patient and family caregiver speakers across nine diverse sessions addressing priorities at the intersection of COVID-19, social injustice, and the global burden of serious health-related suffering. Two primary aims guided the event: community building and wisdom sharing. Nearly 270 registrants from at least 16 countries and one dozen states across the US joined the free program focused on both personal and professional development. Significance of results Unlike many other academic conferences and professional gatherings that were relegated to online forums due to pandemic-related restrictions, the US WHPCD Celebration was intentionally established to create a virtual coming together for collective reflection on the barriers and facilitators of palliative care delivery amid vast societal change. The goal to ensure a globally relevant and culturally inclusive agenda will continue to draw increased participation at an international level during future annual events. Finally, the transparent and respectful sharing of palliative care team experiences in the year preceding the conference established a safe environment for both individual expression and scholarly discussion.

Strategies for knowledge translation of a palliative approach outside specialized palliative care services: a scoping review

“…For this reason, various perspectives of knowledge as action [ 44 ] will be useful, including professionals’ practical wisdom and clinical judgement, as well as partnerships between different stakeholders on meso and macro levels [ 52 ]. Innovative strategies may also be considered, such as large-scale virtual events [ 53 ].…”

The ICN Global Nursing Leadership Institute: Integrating the SDGs into Leadership and Policy Development

“…21 First, through an academic cancer center-sponsored virtual conference in New York City, participants, who formed a global interdisciplinary community, identified lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic that could be of benefit to palliative care specialists. 22 Next, Rosa accepted a role as the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care USA Advocacy Focal Point to work with various U.S. stakeholders to advance palliative care policy. 23 Finally, a series of papers were published promoting policies that highlight evidencebased palliative care, engage the nursing profession in achieving access to universal palliative care (and by extension SDG target 3.8), and call on nurses to strengthen and contribute both primary and specialist palliative care expertise during the COVID-19 pandemic and in future humanitarian crises.…”

“…This project, led by coauthor William E. Rosa, focused on leveraging the palliative nursing workforce to achieve universal access to palliative care, locally and globally 21. First, through an academic cancer center–sponsored virtual conference in New York City, participants, who formed a global interdisciplinary community, identified lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic that could be of benefit to palliative care specialists 22. Next, Rosa accepted a role as the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care USA Advocacy Focal Point to work with various U.S. stakeholders to advance palliative care policy 23.…”

The 2nd Annual US Celebration of World Hospice and Palliative Care Day: A virtual coming together to support equity in palliative care access

“…On October 5–6, 2021, the Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center Supportive Care Service and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences co-sponsored the 2nd Annual US Celebration of World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (WHPCD) (MSK, 2021). Building on the promising outcomes of the inaugural celebration in 2020 (Rosa et al, 2021b), the 2nd annual conference again used a live virtual format and was condensed over two half-days — one in the morning and the other in the afternoon, to increase global access and participation. The 2021 conference program promoted topics relevant to the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA, 2021a) theme — Leave No One Behind: Equity in Access to Palliative Care (Figure 1).…”