Helpful, Powerful, Kind Palliative Care

It’s palliative care month, and in today’s show, we’re talking about death and dying with dignity with Dr. Rebecca Wright, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, Dr. Danetta Sloan, an associate professor at the School of Public Health, and Dr. David Wu, an associate professor at the School of Medicine. Dr. Wu is also the director of the palliative care program at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. In 2018, Dr. Wright, Dr. Wu, and Dr. Sloan founded the Palliative Interprofessional Collaborative for Action Research, or PICAR. It’s an interprofessional team of clinicians and researchers that spans Bayview and the schools of Nursing, Public Health and Medicine; they conduct research to respond to challenges that arise in practice for Bayview’s Palliative Care Program. So, although there is usually a 15–17-year delay in getting research into practice, PICAR is able to answer real questions in real time, with evidence-based solutions. This year, PICAR even helped the Palliative Care Program earn the highest honor a palliative care program can win in the U.S., the Circle of Life Award from the American Hospital Association. So today we’re going to talk about the incredible work PICAR and the Palliative Care Program are doing turning research into practice, including real people in research design, and how their work improves disparities in care for people with serious chronic illness. Read more about their work in “Helpful, Powerful, Kind Palliative Care.”