Elizabeth Anderson

Elizabeth Anderson

Discipline: Social Worker
Funding awarded to: Western Carolina University

Best practices to engage rural families and caregivers in the palliative care needs of patients with kidney disease

The overall goal of the project is to identify how to engage the family members of rural kidney patients with respect to palliative care to ensure that patients receive care that is consistent with their own values. This project has three aims and phases: 1. Describe the perceptions, desires and needs of family members of rural kidney patients in the area of palliative care. 2. Assemble a meeting of local stakeholders including rural patients with kidney disease, their families, and providers about the best approach to engaging family members of rural kidney patients in palliative care. 3. Develop a best practice tool for providers of rural patients with kidney disease to engage the families of patients in rural areas regarding palliative care. This project will support and expand my current leadership efforts from rural Western North Carolina to be a voice for rural patients, families and providers on a national level.

“I endeavor to be a national voice for providers, patients and family members of rural patients with kidney disease that need palliative care. I plan to expand my academic work to include opportunities to teach other rural, non-social work healthcare providers how to engage in palliative care discussions with rural families of kidney patients. I will partner with key stakeholders to raise awareness about the issues in family-centered, rural palliative care. My acquired leadership will help bridge the gap between nephrology and palliative care. I plan to continue to build on my existing research experience to obtain additional funds to sustain the work in rural palliative care for patients with kidney disease. I see myself as a leader who will work actively to make relevant information available not only to providers and stakeholders but patients and families as well, to better engage rural patients and family members.”