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Dying matters. Teach it well.

Vigil Training by Sacred Dying Foundation

 

 

Why Vigil Training

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                      You know the benefits of being a hospital that                       supports the No One Dies Alone program

Baby Boomers and their parents are now spending their last days in hospitals or nursing homes. We are witnessing a shift from futile interventions to palliative care and natural death only to face the reality that the majority of medical students and senior staff alike report being grossly unprepared for dealing with end-of-life issues. These circumstances present an opportunity to be a leader in end-of-life care management allowing for a practical, market-sensitive health care institution.

 

NODA knows: a vigiler makes all the difference.

“I believe our patients could tell that we would hold them in our hearts in their time of sorrow.” NODA End-of-Life Companion, Stanford Hospital, CA

 

 

 

 

 

Continuing education matters. Learn from the experts.

 

NODA is a great asset. Now your institution can build value and strengthen its commitment to end-of-life care by securing on-demand training from Sacred Dying Foundation. Our end-of-life care program provides valuable Continuing Education Units for nurses, social workers, MFTs and chaplains as well as vital training for staff and volunteers. The Vigil Training series delivers 15 years of experience in time-tested teaching modules now presented online, with real-time resources that will move your NODA program to the next level and bring your hospital closer to its goal of comprehensive total patient care.

“The Vigil Training series, with its online e-learning approach and practical tutorials, is exactly what a hospital needs to make its NODA program most effective.”
Sandra Clarke, CCRN
Founder and Creator of
No One Dies Alone
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

Vigil Training by Sacred Dying Foundation is a comprehensive, dynamic, interactive e-learning training product designed to raise the core-goal effectiveness of key personnel in your organization. Our Vigil Training will prepare your staff members and volunteers to facilitate a calm, gracious, and spiritual presence in the midst of the confusion and uncertainty that often accompany an institutional death.

This training series weaves the Sacred Dying Philosophy of a peaceful death into NODA’s practical logistical structure and adds the benefit of providing continuing education for your staff. The series begins with the basics which will help both experienced and novice volunteers and staff in an online, on-demand, interactive format that is efficient, time and cost-effective, and immeasurably comforting to the dying and their families.

The program supports the needs of the hospital staff, the patients, the families, and the greater community while ensuring that the vigil volunteers are instructed and supported. In addition, our online site hosts opportunities for peer-to-peer communication, end-of-life resources, up to date book reviews and serves as a growing go-to site for end-of-life concerns.

What does the Vigil Training series offer?

 

  • A detailed on-demand 10-module Vigil Training for volunteers and coordinators

  • Continuing Education Units certification from the State of California Nursing and Behavioral Science Boards for all eligible users
  • A social network platform for all users, creating a supportive community among staff, volunteers, and vigilers across the country and the world
  • Regularly expanded content/videos and EOL resources

 

 

“People have concerns besides simply prolonging their lives. Surveys of patients with terminal illness find that their top priorities include, in addition to avoiding suffering, being with family, having the touch of others, being mentally aware, and not becoming a burden to others. Our system of technological medical care has utterly failed to meet these needs, and the cost of this failure is measured in far more than dollars. The hard question we face, then, is not how we can afford this system’s expense. It is how we can build a health-care system that will actually help dying patients achieve what’s most important to them at the end of their lives.”- Letting Go by Atul Gawande, The New Yorker 8/2/10

How will this Vigil Training benefit your hospital?

 

The Vigil Training program’s primary objective is to improve both your bottom line and your service effectiveness by developing a coordinated team of end-of-life experts. Many of the vigil volunteers are professional healthcare staff members.

After Vigil Training, these volunteers will have an increased awareness and understanding regarding end-of-life cultural and religious beliefs and concerns. This results in a safer, calmer, and more spiritual space for the dying and their families.

The on-demand nature of the program will simplify training logistics for any hospital, thus taking the workload off paid staffers in palliative care or chaplaincy. The result will mean less administrative cost to run your vigiling program and less stress for these volunteer coordinators.

Importance of Vigil Training

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How does NODA work with the Vigil Training program?

 

No One Dies Alone (NODA) is a hospital-based organizational template for assuring bedside presence for the dying. NODA is adaptable to most institutional settings (i.e., hospitals, nursing homes, etc.) and was created by Sandra Clarke, CCRN. NODA is in the public domain and can be purchased for a nominal fee via Sacred Heart Hospital in Eugene, Oregon.

The NODA template has been requested and/or implemented in hospitals and nursing homes internationally. Since its inception in 1996, Sacred Dying Foundation (SDF) has been training healthcare professionals, chaplains, hospice volunteers in the art of bedside vigiling when death is imminent. Until now, this training has been done in on site workshop formats that involve travel, expense, logistics, and a great deal of time regarding site coordination and volunteer coordination. To seamlessly integrate the efforts and intentions of both NODA and the Sacred Dying Foundation, Vigil Training was created.

This training series weaves the Sacred Dying Philosophy of a peaceful death into NODA’s practical logistical structure and adds the benefit of providing continuing education for your staff. The series begins with the basics which will help both experienced and novice volunteers and staff in an online, on-demand, interactive format that is efficient, time and cost-effective, and immeasurably comforting to the dying and their families.

The program supports the needs of the hospital staff, the patients, the families, and the greater community while insuring that the vigil volunteers are instructed and supported. In addition, our online site will host opportunities for peer-to-peer communication, end-of-life resources, up to date book reviews, and it will serve as a growing go-to online place for end-of-life concerns.

What to Expect

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Detailed Learning Initiatives included in NODA~Vigil Training (Year 1 Subscription):

 

Module One: Introduction

Objectives: Upon completion of this module, learners will be able to:

  • Describe the roles and responsibilities of a Vigil Vigiler within the larger inter-professional team.
  • Compare and contrast the role of the inter-professional health care team with that of the lay vigilers.

Introductory Information

  • What do I need to have done to train as a vigil volunteer?
  • Definition of vigiling The basics of the vigiling philosophy
  • Volunteer vigil responsibilities to the program
  • Spiritual/Emotional responsibilities
  • Practical responsibilities within the hospital setting
  • What is a volunteer vigiler? Roles and responsibilities
  • When you are there as a vigiler, not a practitioner

When you are there as a practitioner: How to interact with the vigiling team

Module Two: What is Death?

Objectives: Upon completion of this module, learners will be able to:

  • Explore their own professional and personal experiences with the dying
  • Use communication skills that enhance their ability to recognize the needs of the dying.
  • Personal spirituality and experience with death
  • Exploring personal biases/assumptions
  • Learning to listen to the dying to improve assessment skills
  • Exercises on coming to terms with death

Module Three: What is Vigiling?

How does it function within the Hospital?

Objectives: Upon completion of this module, learners will be able to:

  • Describe the roles and responsibilities of the inter-professional team member during the vigil;
  • Be able to implement practicalities within the Vigiling Program
  • The Vigil Program from start to finish
  • Different roles and responsibilities of the inter-professional team

NODA Activation Protocol: The Flowchart

Module Four: Before Sitting Vigil

Objectives: Upon completion of this module, learners will be able to:

  • Support the vigiling environment;
  • Create their own skill set and tools to respond with knowledge and sensitivity to those who are actively dying.
  • Before sitting vigil
  • Pre-vigil connection
  • Practice your “introductory” sentence
  • Building your volunteer vigiler toolkit
  • Discussion and exercise on toolkit building

Module Five: Sitting Vigil with the Dying Patient

Objectives: Upon completion of this module, learners will be able to:

  • Establish an environment conducive to creating a sacred space for the dying person and vigiler
  • Utilize different modalities to enhance the dying process.
  • Preparing to sit vigil
  • Creating sacred space
  • Presence and sitting quietly

Engaging: Communication and ritual Music Touch Using the physical setting to support a peaceful environment

Module Six: Family Dynamics when Working with the Dying Patient

Objectives:Upon completion of this module, learners will be able to:

  • Apply knowledge of family dynamics to assist the dying person and loved ones more effectively to have a peaceful and dignified death.
  • Assist families and loved ones in stress or conflict in order to focus on the needs of the dying person.
  • Challenging family dynamics
  • Role-plays and conversations about conflicting roles of family members and loved ones.
  • Conflict management Stress within families at end of life

Module Seven: Multi-Cultural and Multi-Religious and Spiritual Dynamics

Objectives: Upon completion of this module, learners will be able to:

  • Enter the vigiling process with an understanding and incorporation of the cultural and religious values of the dying person.
  • Vigil in a way that honors the cultural, religious, and spiritual customs and practices of the dying person.
  • Understanding the role of cultural and religious traditions at the bedside
  • Asking questions of the family
  • Not assuming that all traditions are the same
  • Being respectful.
  • How to keep your own beliefs and customs private.

Module Eight: Physical Signs and Symptoms as Death Approaches

Objectives: Upon completion of this module, learners will be able to:

  • Identify the physical signs of approaching death.
  • Honor both the physical and spiritual transition of death.
  • Process / Actions when death begins to happen
  • Tools Used
  • What if it’s not time?
  • Understanding that death is not only physical symptoms
  • When a vigiler needs assistance from the nurse.

Video interview with Physician, including Q&A’s from vigilers

Module Nine: Immediately After Death

Objectives: Upon completion of this module, learners will be able to:

  • Participate in incorporating the religious and cultural in care for the body.
  • Honor the spiritual and religious state of those participating in the vigil.
  • Staying with the body after death happens.
  • Cultural and religious traditions in caring for the body
  • Assessing the spiritual / emotional state of family and loved ones
  • Assessing the spiritual / emotional state of the vigiler and interprofessional team members.

Module Ten: Transitioning and Debriefing

Objectives: Upon completion of this module, learners will be able to:

  • Implement practical strategies for self-care after a death has occurred.
  • Assess the specific experience within the larger vigil program to improve the quality of the institutional program.
  • Closing the experience at the hospital
  • Reporting to the Vigiling Coordinator
  • Emotional transition and journaling – self care
  • Getting support from the online community of vigilers

METHOD OF EVALUATION WHEN REQUIRED

Online Evaluation is performed through a Question and Answer test.

If training is taken via workshops, the Vigiling Coordinator will perform evaluations.

Sample Roleplay Excerpt from Module 7

Roleplay 05

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Vigil Training by Sacred Dying Foundation – Subscription Summary

 

DESCRIPTION:

This 10-module inter-professional and integrated course provides an overview of changing approaches to end-of-life care. It is specifically designed for staff of No One Dies Alone (NODA) hospitals as they interact with those who are imminently dying and their volunteer vigilers. This training provides the particular knowledge, skills and abilities to vigil with those who are dying.

TYPE OF OFFERING:

Online and Workshop Based

TEACHING METHOD:

An Interdisciplinary Team (RNs, MDs, Pastoral Care) leads online presentations; uses video simulations and discussions; didactic method within the onsite training; assigned readings, suggested post-evaluation tool.

NUMBER OF CONTACT HOURS:

- 10 hours if taking course online (1 contact hour per module)

- 20 hours if taking course in workshop format (2 contact hours per module)

After completion of this 10-module Vigil Training, the learners will be able to:

- Identify advanced concepts in patient centered end-of-life care within the No One Dies Alone (NODA) program.

- Describe patient centered psycho-social, religious/spiritual needs as they impact clinical care at end-of-life.

- Implement procedural and clinical interactions with volunteer vigilers during patient’s imminent death.

- Apply and promote the values and effects that NODA has for the hospital mission regarding patient care at end-of-life.

 

Vigil Training is provided on a yearly subscription basis. Comprehensive updates and additional modules will be added to the program with each renewal period.

 

TO DISCUSS YOUR RATES AND BENEFITS

contact our Vigil Training Program Liaison:

415-585-9455

Foundation@sacreddying.org

For the back story on how this project got started, watch this video.

 

Producer Background

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a 501(c)3 charitable organization

www.sacreddying.org

Contact: Vigil Training Program Liaison

415-585-9455

Foundation@sacreddying.org

PO Box 210328, San Francisco, CA 94121

Lives well spent. Souls well sent.