The Cookeville Regional Charitable Foundation will host a free community-wide hospice care conference Friday to address hospice and palliative care, and what that looks like here in the Upper Cumberland.
Foundation Director John Bell said several hospice and palliative care experts will speak on different topics, like pain management and the difference between hospice care and palliative care. Bell said hospice care has a negative stigma around it, as it is end-of-life care. Bell said the conference is meant to engage with people and make hospice care not as scary as it seems.
“This is a way to address some of those concerns, hopefully before your family is dealing with that directly, and to do some preventative planning and have some discussions internally on what your wishes are for the end of your life or your loved one’s life,” Bell said.
Bell said the conference is targeting many of the nursing students at Tennessee Tech to possibly join the hospice or palliative care field. Bell said like many other medical fields in the Upper Cumberland, hospice care seeing a shortage in employees.
“It’s a unique setting, and it is maybe more of a calling than even some other areas of the medical field,” Bell said. “But we are hoping that the conference will inspire some of those students to decide to pursue palliative and hospice care.”
Bell said there is already a big demand in the Upper Cumberland for hospice care professionals. Bell said that as the population ages, the need for more hospice care professionals grows.
“I think as the population grows, there will be more pressure to find solutions for inpatient hospice care services,” Bell said. “That’s something that we don’t have in a mature way, at least in the Upper Cumberland at this point. We do have wonderful hospice providers, and there are several, but most of those are focused on care within a facility that exists outside of hospice services or care in home.”
The conference will be held at Tennessee Tech University’s School of Nursing auditorium from 9am-12pm.
