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December 17, 2006

CPSP's Chaplain Karyn Reddick Receives National Award

The Pastoral Report picked up a story about Karyn Reddick, a CPSP Diplomate, regarding her creative work with physicians, nurses and other members of the medical team around end of life issues.

The photo is Florida Governor Jeb Bush and First Lady Columba Bush were joined by U.S. Assistant Secretary for Aging Josephina Carbonell, several Florida agency heads, and former Florida First Lady Rhea Chiles in honoring the accomplishments of these national leaders.

The following story appeared in several publications:

"It has been three years since Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children’s Hospital introduced Five Wishes/Cinco Deseos into their hospitals. Both hospitals were very committed to advanced care planning for their patients, families, community and staff, but had not found a tool to achieve high compliance in this area. The two hospitals have more than 5,000 employees, 1,500 physicians and 800 volunteers and see thousands of patients each year.

Rev. Karyn Reddick was given the document by a staff member who had seen it at his church. She was so impressed that there was a document that captured a person’s end of life wishes on paper. Having worked for many years as a chaplain, she was aware that the traditional Living Will.

Advance Directive documents did not give enough information for those working at the bedside (family members of staff) to adequately interpret the person’s wishes. We cannot always cure our patients, but we are committed to creating positive memories for the families and honoring the patient’s wishes to the best of our ability. Five Wishes has been presented to all of the Memorial governing boards and was accepted as a project for the Physician’s Society. In the period of about 1 ½ years many presentations were made. The hospitals are committed to train every nurse and every physician, with a goal of having them complete their own document. It was hoped that then they would be more comfortable working with their own families and with patients after doing so. LBMMC/MCH customized the document with our their own information on the back page and widely distributed it. It is provided free of charge for doctor’s offices in the hope that those conversations will be encouraged in that setting. Every new nurse is given a hour in-service on advance directives by Rev. Reddick and on this document in particular. Five Wishes is given to every inpatient at admission and is provided if requested in the outpatient setting as well. Rev. Reddick also made a video that can be used on the units to train existing nurses.

On the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of Aging with Dignity (the producers of the Five Wishes document), Rev. Karyn Reddick was given one of 7 National Innovator Awards for her creative use of the document.

Rev. Reddick is Director of Pastoral Care at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and a Diplomate in the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy."