The Path of Dying: Common Illness Trajectories and What's to Come

Caring for someone with a serious illness—and working to ease their suffering—can feel uncertain at times. While no one can predict the exact timeline of an illness, understanding the common patterns and stages can help you prepare for what may lie ahead.

In this continuing professional development offering, Certified Hospice and Palliative Care RN Erin Collins will share the four common trajectories of decline and associated conditions. You will learn what to expect along these trajectories and how best to prepare
ahead of time, as well as how best to support someone along the way.

Erin is a Certified Hospice and Palliative Care Nurse with 17 years of nursing experience in hospice and adult and pediatric oncology. Trained as an End-of-Life Doula, her heart’s work is in end-of-life care. Erin is a member of the Board of Directors for the Oregon Hospice and Palliative Care Association, an appointed member to the Oregon Health Authority’s Palliative Care and Quality of Life Advisory Council and the former Vice-Chair of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s End-of-Life Doula Advisory Council. Erin is a Cambia Health Foundation Sojourns Scholar and a recipient of the Cuniff-Dixon/Hastings Center for Bioethics Award winner for excellence in Palliative Care Nursing.

She co-founded The Peaceful Presence Project after seeing that many patients came to hospice afraid of death and largely unprepared for it. She is committed to educating the community at all levels, including individuals, families, students and clinicians in preparing for and talking about serious and terminal illness with compassion and tenderness. She empowers families to be present with their loved ones in the final stage of life, however long that may be, and believes that by talking about and planning for death with our loved ones, we can ease much of the suffering that arises at the end of life.