A Life & Death Conversation with Dr. Bob Uslander - Dr. Karen Wyatt Founded the End-of-Life University after a Tragic Incident Ep. 14

Dr. Karen Wyatt Founded the End-of-Life University after a Tragic Incident Ep. 14

03/16/18 • 35 min

A Life & Death Conversation with Dr. Bob Uslander

Dr. Karen Wyatt founded the End-of-Life University. Hear how her father's suicide lead her to learn about hospice and a career that focuses on helping educate people about end-of-life care. Contact End of Life University Note: A Life and Death Conversation is produced for the ear. The optimal experience will come from listening to it. We provide the transcript as a way to easily navigate to a particular section and for those who would like to follow along using the text. We strongly encourage you to listen to the audio which allows you to hear the full emotional impact of the show. A combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers generates transcripts which may contain errors. The corresponding audio should be checked before quoting in print. Transcript Dr. Bob: On this episode, I'm speaking with Dr. Karen Wyatt. Dr. Wyatt is a family practice physician who specialized in hospice medicine for many years, and more recently has created the End of Life University, which is an online site that provides education and tools for people to learn about and become more comfortable with approaching end of life and having the most peaceful and dignified end of life possible. She's also an author, has written several books, including What Really Matters, Seven Lessons for Living From the Stories of the Dying. She also wrote a book called the Tao of Death and A Matter of Life and Death. She is a speaker and a great advocate for excellent, compassionate end of life care. During our interview, there were a couple of little connectivity issues, so there's a couple of very brief glitches. I hope it doesn't take away from the valuable content. You'll get some phenomenal insight and inspiration from this interview. Thanks for tuning in. Thank you, Karen, for being on our show today. Dr. Karen Wyatt: Hi, Bob. Thank you so much for having me. Dr. Bob: We had a chance to talk a couple of weeks age when I was interviewed for your podcast, and it was a great conversation. I think we both recognize that we have so much alignment, so many things in common regarding our careers and kind of where our priorities are, where our visions are trying to take us. You probably see this as well. Most of the people who are really passionate about providing great care for people at end of life have a personal experience or a personal story that kind of fuels their drive and their passion for that. I know you have one as well. Can you share a bit about how you became so aware of the importance of providing really phenomenal end of life care and making appropriate preparations? What's your story? Dr. Karen Wyatt: Yes. I'm happy to share that, Bob. It started for me a long time ago, when I was just a young doctor, brand new in medical practice, and I had trained in family medicine, but honestly had no training whatsoever in end of life issues. I hadn't received any ... at all around death and dying, which is shocking really when I look back and think about that. I really didn't have any knowledge or awareness of end of life issues and what was happening in that arena. But at that time I was in my early 30s, and my own father committed suicide, which was a horrific tragedy for me and my entire ... , but particularly devastating to me, because I was a doctor, because I had done extra training in psychiatry, just so that I could treat people with depression, and I had worked with some suicidal patients in my practice. The fact that I couldn't help my own father just completely tore me apart and really caused me to question, "Am I even a good doctor? Should I even be doing medicine?" I floundered for about three years with just overwhelming guilt and grief after my dad's death. One day I got the idea to call hospice, even though at that time I wasn't even really sure what hospice did. I knew so little about it, but this inspiration just popped into my head, "Call hospice." I called and had a chat with them, the hospice in my community, to see if I could volunteer in any way. It turns out their medical director had just resigned 30 minutes before I called, and so she said, "Actually, we have a job for you right now." Knowing almost nothing about hospice, or death and dying, or end of life care, I became a hospice medical director. From that moment on, my training started in really learning about dying. I was trained by the nurses. Our hospice at that time had nurses who had worked there for 10 and 15 years, caring for dying patients. I just followed them everywhere. I sat with them, and I just soaked up all this wisdom, and experience, and knowledge from them, all things that, looking back, I know I should have learned as a doctor. It was embarrassing that, as a doctor, I knew so little, but once I started making home visits to patients in hospice, I realized this is where I'm meant to be. This is the kind of medicine I was meant to do all along. I...

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Nurse Shares Views On Dying, Jen Durrant Ep. 12

Nurse Jen Durrant of Integrated MD Care shares her views on dying and why she believes it should be more accepted in society. Note: A Life and Death Conversation is produced for the ear. The optimal experience will come from listening to it. We provide the transcript as a way to easily navigate to a particular section and for those who would like to follow along using the text. We strongly encourage you to listen to the audio which allows you to hear the full emotional impact of the show. A combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers generates transcripts which may contain errors. The corresponding audio should be checked before quoting in print. Dr. Bob: Welcome to another episode of A Life and Death Conversation. Today, I'm going to introduce you to a very dear friend of mine, and a colleague, member of the Integrated MD Care Team, who I'm very excited to introduce to you and let you get to know her a bit because she is a remarkable human being. She is a remarkable nurse, and she is a true, gentle, compassionate, and healing spirit. I know I built her up quite a bit, and she's embarrassed, but that's too bad. Jen Durrant, please say hello to our listeners. Jen Durrant: Hello, listeners. Thank you for embarrassing me, Dr. Bob. Dr. Bob: That is one of my skills, so Jen is a nurse. She is the Director of Nursing for Integrated MD Care, my comprehensive, in-home practice for people with complex and terminal illnesses, and Jen is someone who I can truly say understands what it takes to truly care for people, and she has a wealth of knowledge, and wisdom, and has just been a joy to work with. Jen joined us in our practice just a few months ago, but I've known her for several years. Jen, do you remember when we first met, because I do, and if you don't, that's okay. Jen Durrant: You remember it better than I do. Dr. Bob: I do remember it better than you do, so I remember a few years ago, I was working as a physician with a hospice company. I was doing palliative care and hospice, and I was called out to see a patient because the family was having a lot of struggle with what was going on. The mom was dying, and the family was having a hard time giving up hope of her getting better, and they wanted her to have more treatment, and it was clear to everybody around that she was not in a position to benefit from treatment, and she really, truly was in her last if not hours, then days of life. I came in to try to just be a support, and help guide the family a bit, but I didn't have to do any of that, because when I came in, I saw Jennifer, who with the hospice admissioners, working with this family, and what I saw was a person who was so gentle in her approach, sensitive to what the family was going through, but firm in her conviction that the patient really needed the support of this hospice team, and should not be subjected to any more aggressive types of treatments. I'm not sure. You may not remember that exact moment, but I'm sure that's a familiar scenario in your work in hospice over the years. Jen Durrant: Yes. Especially being a hospice admissions nurse, I was usually the first contact. Sometimes even the physicians hadn't had that discussion with the family yet, so I was used to stepping into those situations, and supporting the family, and helping them see what was really happening with their loved ones. Dr. Bob: Yeah, and I just remember being really impressed. I had not met her before, and I hadn't actually been involved in hospice all that long, so I was learning as well, and I remember thinking, this gal knows what she's doing, and she's doing it really, really well. At some point in the future, if I ever had my own practice, I'd be looking for someone like her to join me. Fast forward a few years, and I was no longer working with that company, and Jen was no longer working with that company, and I was looking for a nurse to join the practice. I heard through the grapevine that she was in transition, and looking for a new home, and I reached out, and it was ... I wouldn't say it was love at first sight, but it was a match, and it's been a great experience, and I think that we have a lot of great opportunities to work together ahead. I hope you feel the same way. Jen Durrant: I do feel the same way, except for me, it was love at first sight. Dr. Bob: I want to ask a little bit, so we've gotten through that. I've told everyone how wonderful you are, and as you know, I share that pretty freely, because I do think you're wonderful. I want to ask, how did you get to the place of being so comfortable in that position, stepping into situations that are so emotionally charged, and everybody kind of coming at you in many cases, needing answers, needing the solutions. How did you come to be comfortable in that role? Jen Durrant: I think it started when worked in pediatric hospice, as a nurse in pediatric oncology, as a nurse assistant, and many times the patients got better and w...

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"I was scared of death!" How Najah Salaam Helps Those Nearing End of Life, Ep. 15

Najah Salaam at one time feared death. Today, she helps those nearing the end of life. Learn how she overcame her fear and why helping others is so important to her. Contact Multi-Dimensional Healing website Note: A Life and Death Conversation is produced for the ear. The optimal experience will come from listening to it. We provide the transcript as a way to easily navigate to a particular section and for those who would like to follow along using the text. We strongly encourage you to listen to the audio which allows you to hear the full emotional impact of the show. A combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers generates transcripts which may contain errors. The corresponding audio should be checked before quoting in print. Transcript Dr. Bob: Welcome to another episode of A Life and Death Conversation. I'm Dr. Bob Uslander. Today, we're here with a special guest of ... a woman who I've come to consider a dear friend, who's been part of the journey since we began Integrated MD Care. I'm going to introduce you and allow you to hear some of the insights and some of the beautiful, passionate words from Najah Salaam, who is the owner of Multi-Dimensional Healing. Najah's an acupuncturist, massage therapist, and truly a beautiful human being who brings light and healing to many of the patients in our practice. Najah, thanks for agreeing to talk with me today. Najah Salaam: Thank you, Dr. Bob, for a really sweet introduction. Dr. Bob: Well, I could go on ... I could actually use almost the full half hour or so that we're going to be talking just to tell people how wonderful you are and how much I've appreciated having you in my life, and being able to have you collaborating with us and caring for our patients. Najah Salaam: Oh, yeah. It's my pleasure. I love the work that we do. I mean, I could go on for half an hour about you, too. Dr. Bob: Well, we're going to shorten our little love fest, and we're going to actually get into a discussion. If you would, I have the honor of knowing more about you and your background, and what you do and how you do it, but would you be willing to share a little bit about ... kind of where you're from, and how you came to be doing the work that you're doing? Najah Salaam: Yeah, sure. I actually moved to San Diego in around like 2009 from the East Coast. I'm originally from New Jersey. At the time when I ... right before I moved here, I was working for a large marketing ... I'm sorry, an outdoor advertising company in New York City where I was the marketing coordinator. I was kind of at a turning point where I was feeling like this big push for me to make some changes in my life. I wasn't really happy with the work that I was doing there, so I wound up finding San Diego through a friend of mine who just insisted that I come and visit. It just grew on me more and more. I started coming out here. I think I was out here like four or five times, and then like the fifth time, that was it. I was like, "I can't go back on this plane anymore." That was it. I had to move. So with that move, I decided to make some major changes, and get out of the field that I was currently working in altogether, and to embark on something totally different. I had an experience with acupuncture back in like 2001 when I lived in New York City that was so profound that it just imprinted on me at that time, but I was so young. It was before I even finished my undergrad. I knew once ... like if I decided to go down the path of an acupuncturist at that age, that that was ... like there's no turning back. I felt as though I still had some unresolved things to do like finishing my undergrad, which I really needed to do for myself, so I decided to put acupuncture on the back burner in 2001. Then I finished my undergrad, and I worked in the city in New York City, and then it came full-circle. Then it became like, "Okay, now what am I doing because this is not fulfilling. This is not nourishing my soul." So that's when I decided to make the move across the country. Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, the school that I had originally had that impactful acupuncture treatment in New York, the school actually started in San Diego. So when I moved here and I was looking up acupuncture schools, it was a no-brainer for me to just go to Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, because that was the school that had resonated with me so strongly those years ago. That's what began my journey. I was at a better place in my life. I felt like I was more mature. I was ready for this next chapter, where if I would've started it back when I was about 20, I wasn't quite there yet. So I needed that time. I needed that time to really discover myself and to find the things that really resonated with me on a really deep level, and that, of course, was helping and healing people and just sharing my knowledge and studying a...

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