Plenary Sessions:
Thursday, May 11 Breakfast Plenary with Andrew Molosky, MBA, FACHE, CHPCA; President/Chief Executive Officer, Chapters Health System
Seeing Around Corners: What the future of leadership in chronic illness and end-of-life care looks like
This session will focus on the strategic, structural, cultural, and governance adaptations that leaders in hospice and end-of-life care must embrace to successfully guide organizations forward in the healthcare ecosystem of tomorrow. Whether clinical, financial, operational, or philanthropic in nature, common traits of the successful leader of tomorrow exist and will be examined in this dialogue.
Session Descriptions in alphabetical order
Acknowledging Anticipatory Grief: Empowering parents and caregivers of seriously ill children with language and resources to help them find their way.
Speaker: Oralea Marquardt, LCSW Treasure Coast Hospice
A serious illness diagnosis in a child threatens the emotional and physical well-being of the entire family, including siblings, parents and caregivers. Anticipatory grief (AG) is a natural response. However, AG is poorly understood — by the parent/caregivers and often by providers who focus on the underlying medical condition but not the accompanying grief. This lack of understanding results in an unarticulated and unmet need. This session will provide attendees with a framework for understanding AG, including how it manifests, and discuss specific resources to offer families to help them cope. Its goal is to help providers be more comfortable with, available to and supportive of families of seriously ill children.
An Introduction to Florida’s Medical Marijuana Use Program
Speaker: Carmen Dixon, Florida Dept of Health-Office of Medical Marijuana Use
Every day, the OMMU works to provide qualified patients, caregivers and physicians the information and resources they need to access Florida’s medical marijuana program. The OMMU also writes and implements the Department of Health’s rules for medical marijuana; oversees the statewide Medical Marijuana Use Registry; licenses Florida businesses to cultivate, process and dispense medical marijuana to qualified patients and certifies marijuana testing laboratories to ensure the health and safety of the public as it relates to marijuana. We are Florida’s official source for responsible medical marijuana use.
End-of-life decisions and Planning: Balancing Legal Issues & Personal Dynamics for Patients, Caregivers, and Providers
Speaker: Paul Malley, Aging with Dignity | Five Wishes
Hospice and palliative care providers are on the front lines when decisions must be made. This is especially challenging in real-time upon admission or when time is short. Learn practical ways to navigate complex decisions, work through conflict with families, and ensure legal compliance. Proper balance results in patients receiving the care they want and caregivers feeling confident they provided the best care possible. It improves patient experience, reduces second-guessing by loved ones, removes challenges during the bereavement period, and elevates the job satisfaction of clinicians. The session will address practical considerations related to advance directives, healthcare powers of attorney, guardianship, and decision-making authority consistent with the law and policy.
Grief Games: Utilizing Adventure Therapy as an active experiential approach to grief counseling
Speakers: Kelley Thompson, LCSW, ACHP-SW, CCAT and Jacki Nardone, LCSW, ACHP-SW, CCAT; Treasure Coast Hospice
Who says you can’t grieve and have fun at the same time? Adventure Therapy can best be described as a cutting edge model in the counseling field that focuses on experiential physical activity which engages, educates and gently challenges clients. You will learn what Adventure Therapy is and how to utilize activities that are designed to teach the skills individuals need when overcoming grief and loss. Do you want games that you can apply to your clinical practice the very next day? You’ll get that too. Attendees will participate in hands-on games/initiatives that will elicit emotion, promote feelings of self-efficacy and create an environment of healing during the grief and loss process.
How To Burnout-Proof Your Agency for Sustainable, Scalable Growth
Speaker: Sarah O’Brien, BSN, RN, CareXM
When we hear “burnout?” We think about RNs, LPNs, CNAs, maybe even chaplains and social workers. But what about self-care for hospice administrators? What about care for our organizations themselves? Speaker will share organizational “self-care” ideas that will help you sleep at night. Session to cover: Principles shaping staffing challenges/how to reframe for productivity; Strategies/tools for problem workflows; Quadruple Aim alignment for better experiences/outcomes, lower costs.
How Do We Tell the Children?
Speakers: Emmalee Tresnan, CCLS; Leah Stapleton, CCLS; Danielle Eaves Hernandez, MPH, CCLS; all from Community PedsCare at Community Hospice
This session educates interdisciplinary team members on developmentally appropriate language to use with pediatric patients, families, and siblings. Developmentally appropriate interventions and language will be discussed for patients from birth to 100 years old. Simulation activity will promote hands-on training for facilitating difficult conversations for all members of the hospice and palliative care teams.
Despite experience, some conversations are never easy. Research has indicated that many hospices interdisciplinary team members feel uncomfortable when having difficult conversations with children regarding death and dying. As child life specialists trained in child development, we often facilitate the conversations no one wants to have. This hands-on training and simulation will provide a safe space to practice and gain mastery of skills and language to use to avoid scaring children for life.
Identifying & Addressing Spiritual Distress for Nurses and Social Workers
Speaker: Rev. Jim Andrews, Suncoast Hospice | Empath Health
Every hospice patient and family is admitted with spiritual issues and concerns. Not every patient and family is open to receiving support from the chaplain, though. This session will help to equip all of the members of the IDG to identify and address spiritual distress through effective collaboration and timely intervention strategies.
Lessons from the field: An interactive case study of pediatric hospice care.
Speaker: Oralea Marquardt, LCSW; Dalila Santos Rodriguez, RN, BSN, CPN; and Jacki Nardone, LCSW, ACHP-SW, CCAT; Treasure Coast Hospice
This session will be conducted as an interactive case study to define effective strategies and best practices to support pediatric patients with a life-limiting illness and their families. The case study will be presented from an interdisciplinary approach and will be examined from nursing, social work, and program service standpoints. Care considerations, ethical dilemmas, and operational needs will be highlighted.
Medication Tips and Tricks in Palliative Care!
Speaker: Mary Lynn McPherson, Pharm.D., MA, MDE, BCPS, CPE
This session is a virtual potpourri of medication tips and tricks for hospice and palliative care providers! Highly practical, participants will walk away with a deeper understanding of when to use, or not use, pharmaceutical compounds, how to switch between opioids and non-opioids, and the latest, greatest research in pharmacopalliation!
Outcome Oriented Chaplaincy
Speaker: Robert Gauger, Community Hospice & Palliative Care
In this session, Chaplain Robert Gauger will begin with a discussion and overview of Outcome Oriented Chaplaincy, it’s history and established literature. Time will then be spent on process points, comprehensive charting, holistic assessments and the role of pastoral interventions.
Palmetto GBA Update: Medicare Hospice: What to See in 2023
Speakers: Charles Canaan & Marlene Frierson, Palmetto GBA
Errors in billing and responding to additional documentation requests can be costly. During the workshop series, Palmetto GBA will provide information related to the most common errors and why these errors occur. We will also provide tips to avoid these errors. Palmetto GBA’s goal is to educate providers on the most up-to-date information and apply skillful techniques to their documentation and billing practices. (Click HERE to read official topic list.)
The Abundance Meditation
Speaker: Joseph Hamilton, Hospice of Palm Beach | Trustbridge
In this session you will learn a simple, but powerful 5-minute practice on how to obtain abundance using breath work, sound, and meditation.
The Basics of Medication Management for Team Soul (not the MD, PharmD, RN, APRN, PA!)
Speaker: Mary Lynn McPherson, Pharm.D., MA, MDE, BCPS, CPE
Hospice and palliative care is provided by a team of individuals. Not only multidisciplinary, this care is interdisciplinary, with the ultimate goal being TRANSDISCIPLINARY care! All members of the team should be able to some extent, to cross-coverage each other. This educational session will cover the basics of pain and symptom management including how to assess report of a symptom, how team soul providers can reinforce messages from team body, how to address myths and misconceptions about opioids and other treatments commonly used in end of life care, and how to know when to defer to a team body provider. This is a highly practical, applied presentation that EVERY Team Soul professional should attend!
Understanding Florida Guideline for Health Care Surrogates and Proxy Decision-Makers
Speaker: Rev. Jim Andrews, Suncoast Hospice | Empath Health
At some point, most hospice patients will lose the ability to make decisions for themselves. When that happens, we need to look to the appropriate health care decision-maker. But identifying who that person is can be a complicated undertaking. This session will provide simple and clear guidance on applying the Florida Statute to the complex patient and family situations that often arise.
You Don’t Know, What You Don’t Know: How to Utilize Staff Productivity Data
Speakers: HomeCare HomeBase & Trustbridge
Join Trustbridge and Homecare Homebase as we tackle staff productivity challenges. Learn what strategies Trustbridge uses to help maintain staff productivity and satisfaction and how Homecare Homebase supplies the data needed to track productivity progress. In this session, the following questions will be addressed: What data matters? How do we cut through the noise? How do we use data to assess staff productivity and clinical capacity? How do we use data to find opportunities and set realistic expectations?
Please note: FHPCA reserves the right to change any title or speaker for this conference.