ODL 289: Aging and End-of-Life:  Thoughts from a Hospice Nurse

Created On: 7/22/24   Revised On: 3/6/25

Attention New Jersey Social Workers: 

This course is approved for all social workers, including New Jersey. The Board Adopted Amendments: N.J.A.C. 13:44G-6.3, 6.4, and 6.7 Content Areas for Continuing Education Credit on April 15, 2024. This updates the Board’s regulation. This amendment states that  attendance at programs or courses offered by providers approved by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) are now acceptable sources of CE credit. 

At the June 12, 2024 public meeting, the Board voted to allow “any applications submitted, or audits which take place, on or after September 1, 2022” to be able “to submit CE from the sources updated in the new amendment adopted on April 15, 2024.”

For more information please refer to https://www.njconsumeraffairs.gov/sw/Pages/Additional-Information.aspx#CE

Target Audience:

This course is targeted for social workers, counselors, nurses, and case managers.

Overview:

Helping professionals (social workers, counselors, case managers, nurses and the like) often work with both clients and their care partners in navigating the complex challenges around aging and end-of-life.  So many different dilemmas can arise where a helping professional may need to intervene – dilemmas around autonomy vs safety, preserving dignity, advocacy and much more. Hospice nurse and author Gabby Jimenez will be sharing her expertise on these different situations.  How do you preserve a client’s independence while also keeping them safe?  How do you set realistic expectations around the possible decline so that both the client and care partner understand the changes physically, mentally and emotionally that are to come? How do you prepare and plan for these changes so that the client is safe and the care partner is not overwhelmed?  What about managing different family dynamics during this emotional time?  In addition, how do you cope with the grief throughout this process from the loss of independence to the loss of a loved one for the care partner? Don’t miss this informative training where you will learn practical, firsthand information to share with your clients and their care partners.

Course Objectives:

By the end of the session – the participant will be able to:

• Identify at least two dilemmas or challenges that could arise in an aging client and how to effectively intervene and create a safe long range care plan.
• Restate ways to have difficult conversations with the client and care partner around planning for physical, mental and emotional declines.
• Summarize some of the different family dynamics and grief/loss that the client and family may be dealing with and different ways to help them cope.

Presenter:

Gabrielle “Gabby” Jimenez is a hospice nurse, an end-of-life doula, and a conscious dying educator. She has written four books, writes a weekly blog, and has a hospice Facebook page which has 143,000 followers. Her focus is on trying to change the culture relative to death and dying; helping others to feel more comfortable talking about death. And while she sees a lot of death, what she really finds joy in, is her lessons, which are about love, life, culture, tradition, and faith. She combines her experience as a hospice nurse with her in-depth doula training to help her to be more present at the bedside, bringing both patient and family together at that intimate moment of death. She teaches courses on end-of-life care which are helpful to anyone who works in this field, offering guidance to someone who is navigating or caring for someone who has a terminal illness. She also teaches two Ritual & Ceremony classes; one that focuses on grief and loss, and another that focuses on forgiveness of self and others. The legacy she hopes to leave behind is that she helped improve the way people are cared for when they die, and that she inspired others to do this work well. 

2 CREDIT HOURS APPROVED FOR:

Social Workers
ASWB ACE – 2 CE Credits
New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work – 2 Contact Hours
Counselors
NBCC ACEP – 2 Contact Hours
New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners – 2 Contact Hours
Nurses
California Board of Registered Nursing – 2 Contact Hours
Case Managers
CCMC – 2 Contact Hours

Please make sure to check with your own state board to ensure the transferability of CE credit for an asynchronous course. Some state boards may place restrictions regarding the modality of training required for ethics credits to be awarded. If this training indicates ethics credits are available, please verify that your state allows them to be earned through an on-demand course format.