Joy Ufema

Last updated
Joy Ufema
Born
Joy K. Counsel

1942 (age 78–79)
Altoona, Pennsylvania
Other namesJoy (Ufema) Counsel
CitizenshipUnited States
EducationB.S. and M.S., Columbia Pacific University
OccupationNurse
Known forFirst nurse-thanatologist in U.S.
Notable work
Brief Companions
Insights on Death & Dying
Board member ofPennsylvania Hospice Network Executive Committee
Partner(s)Linda Lighty [1] [2]

Joy Ufema, also known as Joy Counsel (born 1942), [3] is a retired American nurse and thanatologist. She is noted for her work with terminally ill people in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, and was the first nurse-thanatologist in the country. Ufema garnered national attention after 60 Minutes aired a segment about her. Ufema was Clinical Specialist in Thanatology for Upper Chesapeake Medical Center/Harford Memorial Hospital. Linda Lavin Played the role of Ufema in a 1981 television film, A Matter of Life and Death.

Contents

Early life and education

Her mother was Cecelia Counsel (1916–1984) from Eldorado, Pennsylvania, [4] and her father Ernest Victor Counsel (1917–1965) was a machinist for the Pennsylvania Railroad in Altoona. [4] [5] After leaving high school, Ufema failed her training as a nurse at Altoona Hospital School of Nursing in 1961. [4] [6] Following a stint working at Warren State Hospital as a psychiatric aide, she returned to Harrisburg to complete her nurse's training at Harrisburg Community College. [4] Ufema earned both B.S. and M.S. degrees at Columbia Pacific University. [7]

Career

Ufema's interest in helping dying patients began when she was working as a urology nurse in 1972. She persuaded the hospital to allow her to tend to terminal patients after hearing a speech by psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. [6] Ufema cited Kübler-Ross' book On Death and Dying as an influence. [8] In her job, she granted several last wishes to her patients, which prompted complaints from her fellow nurses that she had been given too much autonomy. [6]

She garnered national attention after a 14-minute segment about her was aired on the CBS television program 60 Minutes in January 1977. As a result, Ufema received more referrals from physicians. [8] The segment impressed actress Linda Lavin, who made a telephone call to Ufema to talk to her about producing a film about her life. However, the extra publicity Ufema received meant there were conflicts between her and the hospital administration, and she resigned her post in 1978. [6] The film about Ufema, A Matter of Life and Death, was broadcast on television on CBS on January 13, 1981. [9]

One of Ufema's early publications was an article called "What to Say to Members After a Family Death". [10] Ufema has also authored articles for American Journal of Hospice Care. [1] She has served as guest lecturer and consultant for several schools and medical facilities. [10] In 1984, she wrote Brief Companions, describing her work as a nurse thanatologist at Harrisburg Hospital. [11] She was featured in a 1991 video, Dealing with Death and Dying. [12] In 2007, she published Insights on Death & Dying, a collection of her columns since 1987 for a nursing journal. [1] She has held memberships in the Institute of Society, Ethics, and the Life Sciences, the Forum of Death Education and Counseling, and the Pennsylvania Hospice Network Executive Committee.

Ufema founded a private death-counseling practice in Harrisburg which closed after one year of operation because of financial difficulty. She opened the counseling center, Hospice of Lancaster County, in March 1980. [6] She interviewed patients and established a team of medical and other personnel who oversaw volunteers and directed support groups for the patients' families. Ufema's work nationally took time away from her work in Lancaster, and she was asked to resign her position in October 1982. [8] She acquired the York House Hospice for terminally ill patients with AIDS in June 1991 which began operating six months later. [13] Following a recommendation made by Ufema, the hospice was closed on November 22, 1996, after it suffered from financial difficulties. [14] She worked for Upper Chesapeake Medical Center/Harford Memorial Hospital as their Clinical Specialist in Thanatology before her retirement. [2] [15]

Many medical volunteers have stated Ufema influenced them to work in the sector. [16] Ufema asked her patients what it was like to be seriously ill and encouraged them to take control over the remainder of their lives. [17] She was the first nurse-thanatologist in the United States. [13]

Honors

Ufema was honored with the Distinguished Pennsylvanian award in 1980, [10] and was named as a Distinguished Alumni Award winner by the Altoona Area School District Foundation in 2004. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

Assisted suicide Suicide undertaken with aid from another person

Assisted suicide, also known as assisted dying or medical aid in dying, is suicide undertaken with the aid of another person. The term usually refers to physician-assisted suicide (PAS), which is suicide that is assisted by a physician or other healthcare provider. Once it is determined that the person's situation qualifies under the physician-assisted suicide laws for that place, the physician's assistance is usually limited to writing a prescription for a lethal dose of drugs.

Thanatology Scientific study of death and its aspects

Thanatology is the scientific study of death and the losses brought about as a result. It investigates the mechanisms and forensic aspects of death, such as bodily changes that accompany death and the postmortem period, as well as wider psychological and social aspects related to death. It is primarily an interdisciplinary study offered as a course of study at numerous colleges and universities.

Terminal illness or end-stage disease is a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and is reasonably expected to result in the death of the patient. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer or advanced heart disease than for trauma. In popular use, it indicates a disease that will progress until death with near absolute certainty, regardless of treatment. A patient who has such an illness may be referred to as a terminal patient, terminally ill or simply as being terminal. There is no standardized life expectancy for a patient to be considered terminal, although it is generally months or less. Life expectancy for terminal patients is a rough estimate given by the physician based on previous data and does not always reflect true longevity. An illness which is lifelong but not fatal is a chronic condition.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Swiss-American psychiatrist

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was a Swiss-American psychiatrist, a pioneer in near-death studies, and author of the internationally best-selling book, On Death and Dying (1969), where she first discussed her theory of the five stages of grief, also known as the "Kübler-Ross model".

Cicely Saunders

Dame Cicely Mary Strode Saunders was an English nurse, social worker, physician and writer. She is noted for her work in terminal care research and her role in the birth of the hospice movement, emphasising the importance of palliative care in modern medicine, and opposing the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia.

Death education is education about death that focuses on the human and emotional aspects of death. Though it may include teaching on the biological aspects of death, teaching about coping with grief is a primary focus. Death education is formally known as thanatology. Thanatology stems from the Greek word thanatos, meaning death, and ology meaning a science or organized body of knowledge. A specialist in this field is referred to as a thanatologist. Death education refers to the experiences and activities of death that one deals with. Death education also deals with being able to grasp the different processes of dying, talk about the main topics of attitudes and meanings toward death, and the after effects on how to learn to care for people who are affected by the death. The main focus in death education is teaching people how to cope with grief. Many people feel death education is taboo and instead of talking about death and grieving, they hide it away and never bring it up with others. With the right education about death, the less taboo it may become.

Charles Cullen American serial killer

Charles Edmund Cullen is an American serial killer who confessed to murdering up to 40 patients during the course of his 16-year career as a nurse in New Jersey. However, in subsequent interviews with police, psychiatrists, and journalists, it became apparent that he had killed many more, whom he could not specifically remember by name, though he could often remember details of their murders. Experts have estimated that Cullen may ultimately be responsible for 400 deaths, which would make him the most prolific serial killer in recorded history.

Therese Schroeder-Sheker is a musician, educator, clinician, and academic dean of the School of Music-Thanatology, which was housed at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, Montana from 1992 to 2002.

Florence Wald

Florence Wald was an American nurse, former Dean of Yale School of Nursing, and largely credited as "the mother of the American hospice movement". She led the founding of Connecticut Hospice, the first hospice program in the United States. Late in life, Wald became interested in the provision of hospice care within prisons. In 1998, Wald was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

Rainbow Hospice and Palliative Care, founded in 1981, is one of the oldest and largest non-profit hospice and palliative care providers in Illinois.

Washington Death with Dignity Act

Initiative 1000 (I-1000) of 2008 established the U.S. state of Washington's Death with Dignity Act, which legalizes medical aid in dying with certain restrictions. Passage of this initiative made Washington the second U.S. state to permit some terminally ill patients to determine the time of their own death. The effort was headed by former Governor Booth Gardner.

Hospice care in the United States

Hospice care in the United States is a type and philosophy of end-of-life care which focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's symptoms. These symptoms can be physical, emotional, spiritual or social in nature. The concept of hospice as a place to treat the incurably ill has been evolving since the 11th century. Hospice care was introduced to the United States in the 1970s in response to the work of Cicely Saunders in the United Kingdom. This part of health care has expanded as people face a variety of issues with terminal illness. In the United States, it is distinguished by extensive use of volunteers and a greater emphasis on the patient's psychological needs in coming to terms with dying.

Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life by reducing pain and suffering. Hospice care provides an alternative to therapies focused on life-prolonging measures that may be arduous, likely to cause more symptoms, or are not aligned with a person's goals.

Assisted suicide in the United States End of life with help from another person

Assisted suicide is defined as suicide committed with the aid of another person, sometimes a doctor. "Assisted suicide" has been used to describe what proponents refer to as medical aid in dying in the United States for terminally ill adults who self-administer barbiturates if they feel that they are suffering significantly. The term is often used interchangeably with physician-assisted suicide (PAS), "physician-assisted dying", "physician-assisted death", "assisted death" and "aid in dying".

David Kessler is an author, public speaker, and death and grieving expert. He has published many books, including two co-written with the psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: Life Lessons: Two Experts on Death and Dying Teach Us About the Mysteries of Life and Living, and On Grief & Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Grief. His first book, The Needs of the Dying, received praise from Mother Teresa and Marianne Williamson.

Linda Laubenstein American medical researcher

Linda Jane Laubenstein was an American physician and early HIV/AIDS researcher. She was among the first doctors in the United States to recognize the AIDS epidemic of the early 1980s; she co-authored the first article linking AIDS with Kaposi's sarcoma.

<i>Getting On</i> (American TV series) U.S. TV series

Getting On is an American television comedy series based on the British series of the same name, created and written by Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer. The series aired on HBO from November 24, 2013, to December 13, 2015, for three seasons each containing six episodes. The show has garnered positive reviews from critics. It stars Laurie Metcalf, Alex Borstein, Niecy Nash, and Mel Rodriguez.

Lucy Finch is a palliative nurse who has worked in several African countries and founded a hospice in Malawi – Ndi Moyo – "the place giving life".

Margaret Ruth McCorkle FAAN, FAPOS is an international leader and award-winning pioneer in oncology nursing. She is currently the Florence Schorske Wald Professor of Nursing at the Yale School of Nursing.

<i>That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour</i>

That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour is a 2019 memoir written by Dr. Sunita Puri, a palliative care physician who chronicles her experiences with helping terminally-ill patients and their family members make end-of-life decisions. Throughout the span of 13 chapters, Dr. Puri recounts clinical encounters involving both patients and professional colleagues, stories of her upbringing, and personal reflections about the field of palliative medicine. The book was published by Penguin Random House in 2019.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Ufema, Joy (2007). Insights on Death and Dying. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. p. x. ISBN   1582559732 – via Google Books.
  2. 1 2 Harmon, Kate (June 7, 2016). "They gave York AIDS patients a place to die (column)". York Daily Record – York Sunday News. Retrieved September 15, 2016. The pair continued talking of the old days, with Counsel's partner, Linda, whispering later that she worries that after their retirements the two lost sight of the work they'd done – the lives they changed.
  3. ↑ "U.S. Public Records Index" . ancestry.com. 1993. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "News From Around Here". Tyrone Daily Herald . 113 (247). June 5, 1981. p. 1. Archived from the original on September 15, 2016. Retrieved September 2, 2016– via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg .
  5. ↑ "Obituaries – Counsel". Altoona Mirror. Altoona, Pennsylvania. July 16, 1965.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Bricker, Rebecca (January 19, 1981). "Joy Ufema's Work with the Dying Has Inspired Controversy, a TV Film and Immeasurable Gratitude". People. 15 (2). Archived from the original on September 21, 2016. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  7. 1 2 "2004 Distinguished Alumni Award Winners – AASD Foundation/AAHS Alumni Association". aasdfoundation.site-ym.com. Archived from the original on September 20, 2016. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  8. 1 2 3 "Hospice director asked to quit". Reading Eagle (273). October 27, 1982. pp. 1 & 8. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  9. ↑ "TV-movie deals with dying". Bangor Daily News. January 10, 1981. p. 3ME. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  10. 1 2 3 "Joy Ufema will speak at Wilson". The Gettysburg Times. 79 (214). September 11, 1981. p. 7. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  11. ↑ Ufema, Joy (1984). Brief Companions. Fawn Grove, Pennsylvania: Mulligan Company. ISBN   0930841018 – via Google books.
  12. ↑ Dealing with Death and Dying. U.S.: Springhouse Publishing Co. 1991. ISBN   0874343356.
  13. 1 2 J. Hare, Sharon (December 12, 1992). "York House – A place where final wishes are everything" . Hanover Evening Sun. 161 (89). p. A3. Archived from the original on September 11, 2016. Retrieved September 3, 2016– via Newspaperarchive.com.
  14. ↑ "AIDS hospice in York shuts down" . Altoona Mirror. Associated Press. November 7, 1996. p. B3. Archived from the original on September 11, 2016. Retrieved September 3, 2016– via Newspaperarchive.com.
  15. ↑ "Being Fully Present with Joy Ufema". Kanopy. 2007. Archived from the original on September 13, 2016. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  16. ↑ Gall Hare, Mary (October 9, 1992). "Assume dying patient knows best, specialist tells hospice workers". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on September 20, 2016. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  17. ↑ "Nurse Helps Terminally Ill Prepare To Face Death". Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph. Associated Press. February 8, 1978. Archived from the original on September 15, 2016. Retrieved September 2, 2016– via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg .
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.