This occasional feature introduces us to one another, to strengthen our common mission.
A group of nuns trained in hospice and palliative care brought their expertise to the wards of Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital — the flagship of the Catholic University of Korea — nearly 40 years ago.
The university immediately showed unwavering support for palliative care as a necessity to improve the dignity and quality of life for patients and their families. It took action, developing infrastructure for hospice and palliative care, and incorporating in its curriculum the training needed to enact it.
The World Health Organization recognized the importance of the university’s impact by designating its College of Nursing as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Hospice and Palliative Care in 1995. The following year, the university deepened its commitment by opening a Research Institute for Hospice and Palliative Care.
The university was founded to develop medical treatment in order to care for the suffering by embodying the healing spirit of Jesus Christ. The Institute’s mission is to offer professional hospice and palliative care training.
It has been a towering success.
First, by offering a variety of educational events, including seminars, lectures, policy roundtables, and field trips. A short-term program for the public and college students in other disciplines was begun to raise public awareness of the benefits of hospice and palliative care.
Expanding Goals of Palliative Care
In Korea, the Research Institute for Hospice and Palliative Care has provided professional hospice, palliative care, and spiritual care training to practitioners from: Mongolia, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Solomon Islands, and Benin.
An interdisciplinary team was dispatched to Togo to provide customized training for future growth and stability to participants from: Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, the Ivory Coast, and Togo.
Second, by expanding its mission throughout Korea and beyond. The Institute has joined with the National Center of Korea to operate country-wide pilot programs for health care specialists: the Hospice and Palliative Care Standard Program, and Advanced Program.
In 2016, the WHO designated the Institute as a Collaborating Centre to conduct international training.
‘We are thankful for the opportunities we have had, and are ready to travel anywhere in the world where there is a high demand for hospice and palliative care training,’ says the Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre, Jinsun Yong (Sister Julianna), SOLPH, PhD, RN.
‘In addition to focusing on educational programs, we have developed the Korean hospice center model, home hospice model, hospice nursing standards, and spiritual care measurement tools (on spiritual needs and compassionate care, etc.). These activities have been actively promoted since the 1990s, when the concept of hospice and palliative care was relatively unknown here, leading to the development of a national policy and hospice and palliative care in local communities.’
In December 2016, Sister Julianna was appointed Asia representative for the Palliative Care International Advisory Group formed by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life, and participated in preparation of the White Paper for Global Palliative Care Advocacy, published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine in 2018.
‘Through active exchanges with local and international institutions,’ she says, ‘the Institute aims to expand holistic care efforts in global communities and focus on promoting the quality of life and human dignity.’
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