Event Agenda

Thursday, November 20, 2025 | Bavarian Inn Lodge, Frankenmuth MI

5:00 PM – Registration Check In

• Traditional Chicken Dinner Provided

6:00 PM - ​Presentation Begins

• Donna Schuurman - How to Best Serve Families Before and After a Death: What Every Health Care Provider Should Know

8:00 PM - Conclusion

Title:

How to Best Serve Families Before and After a Death: What Every Health Care Provider Should Know

Brief Description

In Part One of this presentation, participants will view the challenges and opportunities medical providers face when a patient is dying, through the lens of two oncologists and actual families from Dougy Center. Grand Rounds, hospital, and hospice staff have called this 20-minute video a “must-see for all medical providers.” Practical and ethical issues raised will be interactively discussed. In Part Two, the implications of diagnosing grieving children, teens, and adults with “Prolonged Grief Disorder” and the subsequent testing of a “grief pill” will be addressed, including social, cultural, and ethical implications and complications.

Educational Learning Objectives: 

1. Cite three attributes or actions family members want from their medical care providers when a family member is dying
2. Appraise general and personal reasons why speaking openly about the impending death of a patient may be challenging
3. Evaluate the potential effects of labeling grief as a “mental disorder”
4. Assess the ethics and implications of treating grief with a “grief pill”