107. American Hospice Pioneer: Barbara Karnes, RN

Barbara Karnes, RN Award Winning End of Life Educator, Award Winning Nurse, NHPCO Hospice Innovator Award Winner 2018 & 2015 International Humanitarian Woman of the Year While at the bedside of hundreds of people during the dying process, Hospice Pioneer Barbara Karnes noticed that each death was following a near identical script. Each person was going through the stages of death in almost the same manner and most families came to her with similar questions. These realizations led Barbara to sit down and write Gone From My Sight, "The Little Blue Book" that changed the hospice industry. Gone From My Sight is the original, and remains the most widely used, patient/family educational booklet on the signs of approaching death. It has been in print continuously since 1985 and has sold over thirty million copies world wide. With its publication and distribution, Barbara created one of the most important tools in the end of life movement today. Barbara Karnes, RN, is an internationally respected speaker, educator, author, and thought leader on matters of end of life. She is a renowned authority on the dying process and a leading educator for families, healthcare professionals, and the community at large. Barbara's award winning DVDs and books about death and dying are starting conversations and changing lives - in this country and around the world. In her work, Barbara compassionately explains stages of the dying process, living with a life threatening illness, pain management, and how people grieve. She explains how important it is to take care of yourself as a caregiver and offers guidelines for professionals. Barbara has held both clinical and leadership positions, including staff nurse, clinical supervisor, and executive director at Hospices and Home Health Care agencies. Since 1994, Barbara has traveled the country speaking about end of life issues and the stages of dying at national and state hospice and palliative care organization conferences, state associations, colleges, nursing schools, hospitals, and hospices. She is the expert that hospice and other healthcare professionals count on to teach them how to explain the dying process to families. Barbara has dedicated the last 40 years of her life to the education, care, and support of dying people and their loved ones. The most useful and important things that she's learned along the way have been distilled into her materials. “People don’t understand that there’s a normal, natural way of dying. My materials are written to guide and support anyone who finds themselves addressing end of life situations. The goal is to help people have a positive experience so everyone involved will have a sacred memory to carry with them.” - Barbara Karnes, RN. Please follow The Death Dialogues Project and learn more about this project at www.deathdialogues.net where you will find links to podcast platforms and our social media. Instagram is our fave social media home @deathdialoguesproject