The integration of palliative care and critical care: one vision, one voice $ Cynda Hylton Rushton, DNSc, RN, FAAN a,b,d,e , Michael A. Williams, MD a,c,e,f , Kathleen Hartman Sabatier, MS, RN d,e, * a Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, Baltimore, Maryland, USA b Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, USA c Division of Neurosciences Critical Care, Baltimore, Maryland, USA d The Institute for Johns Hopkins Nursing, Baltimore, Maryland, USA e Nursing Leadership Academy for End-of-Life Care, 525 North Wolfe Street #533, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA f Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute, Johns Hopkins University, 600 North Wolfe Street, Meyer 5-181, Baltimore, Maryland 21287, USA In September 2000, the Institute for Johns Hopkins Nursing (IJHN) welcomed leaders from 22 national nursing organizations representing 463,000 nurses to the first Nursing Leadership Academy for End-of-Life Care (the Academy). Funded by the Open Society Institute’s Project on Death in America (PDIA), the Academy was designed to improve care at the end of life by enhancing the leadership capacity of nurses. The agenda had been defined earlier by the Nursing Leadership Consortium on End-of-Life Care, also funded by PDIA and administered by the American Association of Critical-care Nurses [1,2]. The Acad- emy implemented one of the priorities identified by the Consortium [3]. To advance this agenda and create an inter- disciplinary, inter-specialty approach, the Academy brought together representatives from specialty organizations and broad-based nursing organizations. The goal was to create a common vision that cut across and unified the nursing profession. The pro- gram at the Academy focused on networking and modeling new behaviors and techniques, such as strategic negotiation and communications skills that would help participants to advance EOL care within their own organizations. To nurture a different kind of openness and differ- ent expectations, the program stressed experiential learning rather than content-driven lectures. This approach echoed the conviction of Academy leaders that end-of-life issues involve a spiritual and emotional dimension in addition to the scientific and technical content traditionally acknowledged in formal edu- cational programs. The aspect of openness also under- scored the importance of communication in palliative care communication among caregivers and com- munication with patients and their families. Since the weeklong meeting in September 2000, participants have worked with assigned mentors and have submitted quarterly reports to IJHN. In addition, they have had ongoing interactions with their peers in the Academy, facilitated by an email ‘‘listserve’’ and enhanced since February 2001 by the website jointly developed by IJHN and Sigma Theta Tau, www. palliativecarenursing.net. They will meet again in 2002 to take the EOL agenda further. The 2002 meeting will focus on strategies for sustaining the changes and projects that are underway. 0899-5885/02/$ – see front matter D 2002, Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved. PII:S0899-5885(01)00003-X $ The Nursing Leadership Academy for End-of-Life Care is supported by a grant from the Open Society Institute’s Project on Death in America (400 West 59 th Street, New York, NY 10019). * Corresponding author. Nursing Leadership Academy for End-of-Life Care, 525 North Wolfe Street #533, Bal- timore, Maryland 21205. E-mail address: ksabatier@son.jhmi.edu (K.H. Sabatier). Crit Care Nurs Clin N Am 14 (2002) 133 – 140