Kath Murray is passionate about increasing the capacity of all health
care team members to provide excellent care for the dying and the
bereaved, through education and pragmatic resources.
Grounded
in years of experience as a registered nurse working with the Victoria
Hospice and the Victoria Hospice Palliative Response Team, followed by a
Masters Degree and Fellowship in Thanatology, Kath has dedicated
immeasurable time, energy, and personal resources to truly make a
difference in palliative care education.
In 2004, along with her Ted, she founded Life and Death Matters,
an education consulting company. Her first book, “Essentials in
Palliative Care”, was published in 2005. In 2008 Kath took up the
challenge issued by Dr George Eisler from the BC Academic Health Council
to leaders in hospice palliative care with the question, “How can you
prepare the workforce for the coming tsunami of dying?” Using the
resources she had developed, Kath started educating educators teaching
health care workers and practical nurses across Canada. She stressed the
importance of integrating hospice palliative care content in core
curriculum and shared her text “Essentials in Hospice Palliative
Care”. Subsequently, Kath has written a text and companion workbook
specifically for health care workers titled, “Integrating a Palliative
Approach: A Resource for Personal Support Workers”. And most recently
she published a text for nurses “Essentials in Hospice and Palliative
Care: A Practical Resource for Every Nurse” - a visually inviting,
comprehensive and user-friendly reference that nurses should have at
their finger-tips.
As well as being practical clinical tools, her
resources are designed to help students meet the provincial/state and
national education standards/competencies related to hospice palliative
care.
Over the years, Kath (and Ted) have travelled countless
miles across Canada, the US, Mexico and beyond, delivering
presentations, discussing and assessing palliative care educational
needs, orchestrating online courses, and creating teaching resources in
English and other languages. She responds to requests as they arise, and
was honoured to adapt her resources for nurses in Nepal and was able to
teach the Nepalese nurses before completing their textbook. As always,
she nurtured the local educators by developing modules to help support
the students and educators.
Kath’s textbooks and companion
workbooks, educational DVD’s, PowerPoint teaching presentations and
podcasts are now integrated in over 200 schools and sites across Canada
and the US for personal support workers and practical nurses, as well as
in orientations and continuing education programs for residential
hospices, long term care facilities and palliative care units.
In
the palliative care community, Kath is known for her welcoming smile,
her skill in connecting colleagues and making things happen, her
determination and hard work, and constant promotion of excellence in
palliative care.
Beyond work hours, Kath is a devoted to her
family and a faithful volunteer within her Vancouver Island community,
province of BC, and at national and international levels.
While
known for always promoting the expertise and good work of others, it is
your turn to ‘Take a Bow’ Kath Murray ... in appreciation and
recognition for helping countless individuals, families and health care
providers realize that life and death matters.