Complementary Therapy Program Coordinator / Complementary Therapy Hospice and Palliative Care Nurse
Holy Redeemer Home Care and Hospice
12265 Townsend Rd., Suite 400
Philadelphia
PAUSA
19154
Biographical Sketch: Hospice nursing since 1986. CHPN certified since 2000. Certified massage therapy 1994, advanced reflexology 2002, advanced massage 2004. Level 1 and 2 Healing Touch 2010. ISHA (Clinical Aromatherapy – current student) 2010. NHPCO Allied Therapy steering committee member representing massage/ bodywork therapy 2004-2007. NHPCO Allied therapy section leadership 2008 - 2011.
15 years inpatient residential hospice unit experience. Addt'l job responsibilities include 20 yrs. experience educating volunteers and new hospice employees / symptom mgt., stages of dying, stress response, complementary therapies.
2002 - present, development and coordination of The Complementary Therapy Program for Holy Redeemer Hospice in Philadelphia, PA - and New Jersey offices, providing oversight of professional integration of complementary therapy certified interdisciplinary team members specializing in massage and bodywork therapy, an integrative model.
Valerie writes for the NHPCO quarterly magazine, Insights. Annual concurrent session presenter at NHPCO clinical conferences since 2005, Mount Ida College - NCDE Summer Series 2010. A representative for the healing arts in hospice care, she hopes to be one of many who will bridge the barriers to professional integration of complementary therapy in hospice care, successfully. She sees a day when integrative hospice care will be the terminology used in hospice programs that commit to the application of non pharmacological therapeutic modalities in everyday practice safely and purposefully.