Speakers and session descriptions:
Education Day 2025 Opening Keynote with Nadine Valk.
The Practical Power of Emotional Intelligence: Building Competencies from the Inside Out
Nadine is a full-time coach based in Ottawa, specializing in working with caregivers, care providers, and care teams. With over 30 years of experience in health, community, and palliative care—including roles as Director of Education for Hospice Palliative Care Ontario and Executive Director of the Champlain Hospice Palliative Care Program—she brings extensive expertise to her practice.
In palliative care, providers face complex situations that demand more than just clinical expertise. They require the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions to guide the care we provide. Often, we dismiss these so-called ‘soft skills’ and focus on knowledge and technical skills, overlooking the crucial role of emotional intelligence (EI) in shaping our attitude (behavior, mindset, and motivation). Without EI skills, we can't truly address someone's ‘total pain’—their experience that is not only physical but also emotional, social and spiritual.
Certified coach and EQi2.0 practitioner Nadine Valk will help us understand the importance of EI in palliative care. You'll learn how competencies like self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and social skills lead to improved outcomes, better collaborative decision-making, and reduced burnout. You will also learn about some simple ways to incorporate EI into your daily routines, creating meaningful connections and offering exceptional care without sacrificing your own well-being.
Join us as we explore how building EI competencies from the inside out can transform the way we care for ourselves and others.
Closing Keynote with Dr. Blair Bingham
Death Interrupted: How Modern Medicine Complicates the Way We Die
Doctors today can call on previously unimaginable technologies to help keep our bodies alive almost indefinitely. But this unprecedented shift in intensive care has created a major crisis.
In the widening grey zone between life and death, doctors fight with doctors, families feel pressured to make tough decisions about their loved ones, and lawyers are left to argue life-and-death cases in the courts. Meanwhile, intensive care patients are caught in purgatory, attached to machines and unable to speak for themselves.
Dr. Blair Bigham is an award-winning journalist, scientist and physician who trained in emergency and critical care medicine at McMaster and Stanford Universities. He was a Global Journalism Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Associate Scientist at St Michael’s Hospital. He is co-host of the CMAJ Podcast and deputy editor at healthydebate.ca. He is currently an assistant professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
Morning Workshop on Supporting Patients and Families with Hospital-to-Home Transitions Near End of Life: The ACEPATH Project
As Canadians with life-limiting illnesses approach the end of life, the focus of their care often shifts to comfort, and many may seek to return home. Transitions from hospital to home in palliative care can be emotionally distressing and logistically challenging. When poorly handled, these transitions have negative effects on the physical and psychosocial wellbeing of patients and family caregivers. Previous interventions have tried, with mixed results, to reduce hospital readmissions after transitioning home by deploying nurse navigators and case managers. None of these interventions for this transition at end of life nor their associated outcomes have been developed in partnership with patients and family caregivers, and none have been trialed in Canada. Without patient and family caregiver involvement, interventions may not capture the components needed to improve outcomes that most matter to patients and family caregivers.
Madeline is a Research Manager in the Isenberg Lab at the Bruyère Health Research Institute. She has gained experience in supporting health services and qualitative research project, and patient engagement over the past 8 years. For 3 of those years, Madeline has worked as a Research Coordinator and, currently, a Research Manager in the Isenberg Lab. She has helped coordinate and lead a project which co-designed an intervention to improve the hospital-to-home transition for those experiencing a palliative approach to care that was informed by patients, their family caregivers, and healthcare professionals at Bruyère Health and the Ottawa Hospital. Madeline received a Master of Science in Health Sciences from Carleton University during which she was a research assistant at Carleton University with the “Imagining Age-Friendly ‘Communities within Communities’: International Promising Practices” project. During her Honours Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Toronto, she completed an independent research project on access to transportation for older adults. Madeline’s research interests include transitions from hospital to home particularly those in rural settings, palliative home visits and homecare, and patient engagement.
Morning Workshop on Responding to Common Concerns at End-of-Life
- Why are you letting my mother starve to death? (Dying process, symptom management)
- This is going on too long…is there nothing you can do? (Existential suffering)
- My father loved life! I do not want him to be “palliative” (Goals of care concepts)
This session will explore the realities, and perhaps some challenges, around navigating end of life care with families. With a structure of offering a response to the common questions we hear, we will review why we are unprepared for matters around dying, apply theory in practice and share lessons learned from the field.
Anne specializes in palliative care and oncology. She currently works at Montfort Hospital. She is responsible for supporting the palliative care consultation service. She is involved in the care of the terminally ill patient and assists in managing the needs of the family. In her role, she contributes to the integration of best practices and the teaching/awareness of palliative care to staff.
Morning Workshop on Engaging Individuals in Navigating MAiD
The decision to pursue Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) has a profound impact that extends beyond the death itself, affecting the individual, their family, community, and healthcare team. Addressing the everyday issues and complex needs of all individuals touched by MAiD is essential.
This workshop aims to enhance participants' knowledge and skills when engaging with individuals and their support networks in navigating the MAiD journey. Through a real-life story, it will provide an overview of MAiD, information on the psychosocial aspects impacting the decision to pursue MAiD, particularly the grief and bereavement process, and highlight ways to mitigate the challenges of supporting individuals through MAiD.
Sara Olivier is the Advanced Practice Nurse & Program Manager for the Champlain Regional MAiD Network based out of The Ottawa Hospital.
She has been with TOH since February 2016, and previously worked in Montreal where she specialized in cancer pain management. At TOH, she held various APN roles in chronic pain, substance use and palliative care, before joining the MAiD team in January 2022.
Morning Workshop on The Delivery of Collaborative Multidisciplinary Whole Person Integrative Care: An Exemplar from the Centre for Health Innovation
In this session, Dr. Seely, ND will outline the process whereby the Ottawa Integrative Cancer Centre (OICC) and the Centre for Health Innovation (CHI) were created and how the clinic has striven to meet the needs of patients seeking a more holistic model of care. We will discuss the team built including the means of communication and collaboration that the CHI applies to serve the needs of its patients and how well this has been achieved.
Emphasis will be placed on describing the types of care provided by practitioners at the CHI including the modalities of therapies used, how often these are applied, and the conditions these therapies can alleviate. In addition to the clinical model of care applied at the clinic, there will be a review of some of the research applied through the clinic for people living with cancer.
Throughout the talk, there will be a focus on how this type of care might make a difference to those seeking support for their symptoms and how integrative care can contribute meaningfully to palliative care.
Dugald Seely is a father of two who shares time between Ottawa and Toronto as a naturopathic doctor and clinician scientist caring for patients and conducting research for the past 20 years. Dr. Seely runs a clinical practice along with a multidisciplinary team of 30 health care practitioners at the Centre for Health Innovation (home of the Ottawa Integrative Cancer Centre) and is the executive director for the Patterson Institute for Integrative Oncology Research with the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine (CCNM). Dr. Seely serves as an affiliate investigator for the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, and adjunct professor with the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Seely has been awarded over 12 million dollars in support of clinical and synthesis research. Past president for the Oncology Association of Naturopathic Physicians and recipient of the 2017 Dr. Rogers Prize, Dr. Seely has published over 100 papers and book chapters and speaks frequently on topics related to his research and clinical care with the aim of building on the evidence base to improve integrative care for patients living with cancer.
Afternoon Workshop on Top 10 Tips for Symptom Management at the End-of-Life
In this session, we will cover a broad range of symptom management topics, with the aim to empower participants with the tools to address them in their daily roles as palliative care professionals. Through participant engagement and sharing of knowledge we will build a "Top 10 List" of essential palliative care symptom management strategies. We will also focus on some of the key elements that clinicians should teach patients and their caregivers when preparing them to manage common and less common palliative symptoms.
Amanda Burcher spent much of her early Nursing career working in Critical Care (ICU and Emergency) while completing her Masters of Science in Nursing degree with Nurse Practitioner diploma. She began working as a Nurse Practitioner in 2013 and has since been working with the Regional Palliative Consultation Team, providing community-based palliative care. Amanda has completed the McMaster Geriatric Nursing Specialty certificate and feels passionate about care of the Elderly. More recently, Amanda has taken on a position as an East Region Palliative Care Clinical Co-Lead with Ontario Health. In her spare time, she enjoys Volunteering as a Girl Guide Leader and is working on her Doctorate of Nursing at the University of Calgary.
Dr. Jill Rice began her career as a rural Family Physician, but has done primarily palliative care since 2003. She is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Palliative Medicine at the University of Ottawa and Chief of the Department of Palliative Care at Bruyère. Current clinical roles include working with the inpatient and consultation palliative care services at Bruyere, in the community with the Regional Palliative Consultation Team, and in multiple care settings with the Division of Palliative Care Neuro-Palliative Program.
Afternoon Workshop on Honoring a Life: Practical Ideas for Legacy Making and Life Review
In this interactive and reflective workshop, participants will explore ways to honor and preserve life stories, experiences, and legacies. Together we will engage in legacy activities while practicing deep listening and mindful presence.
Ruth is a Hospice palliative Nurse Educator. Ruth has been a palliative care nurse coordinator in large teaching hospitals, a palliative care nurse consultant for Health Units in rural Alberta and a director or a Geriatric Day Hospital in southern Alberta. In Ottawa, Ruth has been a nurse researcher, college professor, hospice nurse and a nurse innovator and educator for long term care. Ruth’s philosophy is holistic in nature and applies these principles within her scope of practice as a hospice palliative care nurse and her personal life.
Carl has coordinated healthcare education and communications at the Champlain Hospice Palliative Care Program (CHPCP) since 2019. Carl has experience working in long-term care facilitating therapeutic art, structured life review, and life review groups. He is passionate about combatting loneliness, helplessness, and boredom within long-term care.
Afternoon Workshop on Speaking the Client's Language: The Role of Medical Interpreters in Palliative Care
The role of medical interpreters is to impartially deliver messages as faithfully as possible between the healthcare provider and the non-English speaking client. Palliative care poses unique challenges for everyone involved: clients are particularly frail, providers are often spread too thin, and interpreters are likely unaware of what to expect. How can providers and interpreters best work together to ensure the client fully understands their condition and treatment plan? How can interpreters bridge the language gap for clients to provide informed consent at every step of their care? In this interactive workshop, the Ottawa Language Access (OLA) team will discuss some best practices when working with interpreters, and will give participants ample opportunity to put their learnings into practice.
Afternoon Workshop on Navigating Challenging Family Situations in Palliative Care
This workshop will be an interactive exploration of family* reactions as they navigate the world of palliative care. How do you define a challenging family situation? Families of different sizes, backgrounds and dynamics face the death of a loved one every day. We work with them every day. What can we do when the family’s expectations, questions, and behaviours are outside that of the typical situation?
There is no magic answer to this question (sorry), but we will discuss some avenues to explore to help in these situations. Using case studies, and small group discussion, we will discuss strategies around communication, team work, trauma informed care, and self-awareness to improve interactions with challenging dynamics. Please bring your own cases or situations to add to the discussion.
Shirley Chennette, RSW, is the Team Lead of the Family Support Services Team at Hospice Care Ottawa. She has been a part of Hospice Care Ottawa since 2016, working with families both in the residences at end of life and also providing counseling in bereavement. Prior to that she has experience in community social work, long term care, brain injury rehabilitation and services for those with dementia, working in Toronto and Ottawa
Afternoon Workshop on Empowering Caregivers: Practical Skills for Better Care
Discover how our 5-week caregiver education program is transforming the caregiving experience by equipping caregivers with essential skills and knowledge to provide care for their loved ones.
This session will provide an in-depth look at the program’s curriculum, which covers critical topics such as: the role of the caregiver, advance care planning, assistance with mobility and hygiene care, grief and bereavement, end-of-life care, medication management, communication, and self-compassion. We will also discuss the program's history of successful delivery across the region, highlighting how it has been tailored to suit the needs of diverse organizations and adapted for in-home sessions.
Join us to explore how this program can strengthen caregiver skills, build support networks, and enhance the caregiving journey and to consider how you might integrate it into the care that you offer.
Val is the Director of the Champlain Hospice Palliative Care Program. Prior to taking on this role Val worked in the post-secondary nursing education sector in both Professor and Academic Administrator roles. Val completed her BScN at Queen’s University, and MScN and PhD at the University of Ottawa. Val worked as a Clinical Nurse Specialist, palliative care, in Ottawa and Montreal, and also worked in a variety of other roles and settings during her over 30-year nursing career. Val is an avid Redblacks fan and loves to canoe camp with her husband JP and her dog Bayley.
