viii Essentials in Hospice and Palliative Care: A Practical Resource for Every Nurse ❥ ❥ Andrea Warnick, a fellow student in the thanatology pro- gram at Hood College, who wrote the piece on working with children. ❥ ❥ Dr. Ann Syme for sharing her ideas and resources on sex- uality and intimacy. ❥ ❥ Dr. Carla Cheatham for her research on spiritual care, and her contributions to the FICA Spiritual Care Assessment tool. ❥ ❥ Dr. Françoise Mathieu, who contributed to the piece on compassion fatigue in the books I wrote for personal sup- port workers and nursing assistants: Integrating a Palliative Approach: Essentials for Personal Support Workers (2014) and Essentials in Hospice and Palliative Care: A Resource for Nursing Assistants (2015). The materials in those texts were adapted for this text for nurses. ❥ ❥ Carrie Bergman from the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, who provided insight and shared the illustration of the Tree of Contemplative Practices. Many organizations and people helped form the foundation of this text. I gratefully acknowledge: ❥ ❥ The two national education providers—Pallium Canada (Learning Essentials Approaches in Palliative Care [LEAP]) and, in the United States, the End-of-Life Nursing Educa- tion Consortium (ELNEC). ❥ ❥ Dr. Betty Ferrell and Dr. Nessa Coyle, editors of and con- tributors to The Oxford Textbook of Palliative Nursing. They are leaders in palliative care nursing in the United States and internationally. ❥ ❥ The two national hospice and palliative care associations— the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA) and, in the United States, the National Hospice and Pallia- tive Care Organization (NHPCO), and their respective lead- ers Sharon Baxter (executive director) and John Mastrojohn (chief operating officer). ❥ ❥ Victoria Hospice Society, which provided me with almost 25 years of work experience, on-the-job education, and the opportunity to teach and attend some seminal educa- tional events. ❥ ❥ The College of Licensed Practical Nurses of Alberta, which gifted me with an in-kind donation of work time from Jeanne Weis. She provided her expertise as a strong hospice and palliative care nurse and a former licensed practical nurse. She has a Master of Nursing degree and brought with her to this project her experience in policy writing. This gift was a vote of confidence and support, and included the college’s express desire to have a resource that would help students in practical nursing programs achieve the compe- tencies related to hospice and palliative care. Thank you, Linda Stanger, Teresa Bateman, and Glenda Tarnowski. I need to acknowledge that my involvement with hospice and palliative care nursing started in my childhood. My dear aunt, Frances Montgomery, the master family caregiver, introduced me to caregiving and compassionate communities when I was a teenager, and my mother, Yetta Lees, not only taught me of community, but also asked and allowed me to be part of the community that cared for her when she died. I have said often that I am very good at gathering together excellent people into a team. The team members that worked directly on this book are: ❥ ❥ Joanne Thomson—How did I ever attempt to provide edu- cation without an artist in my life? Creating educational resources with Joanne has thrilled me. Together we wres- tled with concepts and explored ways to create “delicious and digestible” resources, and then Joanne would retreat to her studio and later return with illustrations that inspired and strengthened the written materials. Thank you. ❥ ❥ Greg Glover—Thank you for your outstanding work on the complex layout of this book, which helps make it visually delicious and educationally digestible. Your insight and ex- perience have been invaluable to this project. ❥ ❥ Ann-Marie Gilbert—This book would not have been finished if it were not for you. You endured and even enjoyed the process right through to completion. I thank you, Ann-Marie, and appreciate your many, many contributions. ❥ ❥ Sarah Weber and Ann-Marie Gilbert—You are phenom- enal editors. Thank you both. Your attention to detail is incredible. Wow! I stand all amazed! ❥ ❥ Kim Garnett— We at Life and Death Matters knew when we first met you that we needed you, your leadership, and your ideas. Thank you for coming on board and for staying on board! As well I thank Ted, my hubby of over 35 years. Thank you for your help, your encouragement, and your constant belief in me. ¡Gracias, mi amigo! And to our kids—Jenny, Naomi, Michael, Krystal, and Geordie— thank you for all the lively dinnertime conversations about dying, loss, and grief. Thank you for helping me to live more fully and to love more deeply. Kath