As a palliative care nurse, Jeannie’s mission is to ensure that every person can approach the end of their life in dignified comfort and support, and with the very best medical care. She’s collaborated with People Animal Connection to establish a service dog program called Palliative Care Pups, and she often develops and runs role-play training for nurses to help them practice difficult conversations. When Jeannie sees a gap in care, she doesn’t rest until she has addressed it, because she believes that everyone, no matter their circumstances, deserves dignity and comfort. The most striking example is Jeannie’s relentless work to ensure that people experiencing homelessness can express their wishes about their end-of-life care through advance directives and to get compassionate and excellent hospice care.
This is extremely challenging work, because when people without homes land in an emergency department, they often do not feel comfortable talking about end-of-life care or advance directives. Seeing that the traditional systems were not reaching this population, Jeannie decided to meet them where they are. She partnered with a licensed clinical social worker to develop a program called Hearing Their Voice in collaboration with St. Robert’s Food Pantry in Venice Beach. There, she worked with staff and community members to establish trusting relationships so that people could express their wishes for end-of-life care through advance directives. The program is so successful that she has presented it nationally and Hearing Their Voice has expanded to Georgia, Texas and Oregon.
This is remarkable, but Jeannie didn’t stop there: People experiencing homelessness are often unable to access hospice care, so Jeannie decided, again, to bring the care out into the community. She has partnered with other nurses and social service providers to offer dignified, comfortable hospice care to homeless people in the setting of their choice. Her belief in the inherent dignity and worth of every human being shines through in everything that she does, and her impact is immeasurable.