Spiritual Issues at End of Life
April 2 - April 27, 2012
Spiritual Issues at End of Life
Instructor: Kathleen Rusnak, Ph.D.
When a person receives a terminal prognosis, they embark upon an unexpected new journey. Their worldview is forever changed. Discoveries into the meaning of life and the essence of the self, the other, and God emerge. What the dying learn about living at the end of life is their gift to us in the midst of life. Through the first two weeks of this course, participants will examine Dr. Rusnak’s seven fold-framework that details this journey and guides caregivers in their work with the dying. The second half of this course will focus on recognizing spiritual issues in ordinary language. Spiritual issues are contextual and couched in ordinary language, thus they have the tendency to appear hidden, illusive, and inaccessible. Using the seven fold framework of the world of the dying, Dr. Rusnak will identify, define, and illustrate through case studies, the spiritual issues that emerge in the end of life context. This will necessarily include definitions of spirituality, religion, spiritual pain, and religious pain, and what differentiates these. It is in recognizing spiritual issues in ordinary language that the professional provider can effectively reduce or eliminate pain, a critical goal of palliative and hospice care. Course discussion throughout the four weeks will provide the opportunity for participants to share their own work experiences and case vignettes, and discuss these in terms of the concepts presented.
Dr. Kathleen Rusnak, Ph.D., has been the chaplain for two hospices in New Jersey, the Director of Spiritual Care and Bereavement at The Connecticut Hospice in Branford, CT, the pastor of four Lutheran congregations in New Jersey, and the Director of the Holocaust Study Department at Nes Ammim, a Christian kibbutz in Western Galilee, Israel (1998-2000). She is an ordained Lutheran minister, with a Ph.D. in Psychology and Religion from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. Dr. Rusnak has published numerous articles. She is the founder and president of The Brick Wall 2, Inc., which is an educational center focusing on spiritual issues that emerge after a life shattering experience.
Tuition: $250.00
10 Continuing Education Credits
For more information, contact NCDE at ncde@mountida.edu