Katherine Doyon
Discipline: Nurse
Funding awarded to: Boise State University
A Collaboratively Designed Online Curriculum for Community Health Workers who Work with Refugees with Serious Illness in Idaho
My goal is to collaboratively develop, assess, and distribute an online PC curriculum for community health workers, grounded in cultural humility to ensure an inclusive approach to supporting this vulnerable population. To successfully navigate the complexity of the interplay between PC and care for seriously ill resettled refugees in a community with an emerging PC presence, stakeholder collaboration is critical. I will collaborate with resettled refugees, clinicians who care for refugees, and resettlement agencies at each step of the process. My vision for leadership is to have the skills and insight to bridge the gap between acknowledging healthcare is inequitable to actionable behaviors that mitigate the inequities.
I envision my legacy as the number of people who can advocate for palliative care services for themselves and to be an ally for those who cannot. My goal is to be known as an expert in health inequity in palliative care and in mentoring the next generation of palliative care clinicians, researchers, and advocates. Through this award, I will create a curriculum for community health workers working with refugees that integrates palliative care principles into their training. My goal is to be known as an approachable and conscientious palliative care nurse who is willing to distribute and share palliative care curriculum to any who ask for it. Spreading awareness of palliative care and how resettled refugees would benefit from palliative care through a high-quality, collaboratively developed curriculum has the potential to have an enormous impact on the care of resettled refugees with serious illness.