In the last several years, I’ve seen more and more articles about end-of-life doulas (like this NY Times article from 2021). Despite this, in my 20-year career as a palliative care physician, I have yet to see a death doula in the wild. I’m unsure what they do, how often they’re used, and who pays for their work. So, on today’s podcast, we try to get to the bottom of what exactly is an end-of-life doula.

We’ve invited two death doulas, Jane Euler and John Loughnane (who is also a family doc and palliative care physician), to talk about the role of a doula at the end of life.  We also invited Beth Klint to speak about the doula's role within a traditional hospice organization. Why Beth?  In addition to being a palliative and hospice RN, she is the Executive Director for Goodwin Hospice, a large non-profit hospice that added end-of-life doula care to their services in collaboration with Jane and John’s doula organization, Present for You.

If you are interested in learning more about death doulas, check out the following links

• Goodwin Hospice’s article on the collaboration with Present for You

• A HospiceNews article talking about the value proposition of death doulas for hospices

• NHPCO’s End-of-Life Doula Council page that includes a lot of great links