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Keynote Address

2025 HPNA Conference
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The Imperative of Education for Every Palliative Care Nurse

Monday, October 27, 2025
9:30 – 10:30 a.m. ET

Providing education to patients, families, the public and colleagues is the responsibility of every palliative care nurse. In this keynote address, Dr. Ferrell will share 25 years of providing palliative care education through the End of Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) and lessons for all nurses for using education as a force of improving care.

Betty Ferrell, RN, PhD, MA, CHPN, FAAN, FPCN

Betty Ferrell, RN, PhD, MA, CHPN®, FAAN, FPCN®

Dr. Ferrell has been in nursing for 48 years and has focused her clinical expertise and research in pain management, quality of life, and palliative care.  Dr. Ferrell is the Director of Nursing Research & Education and a Professor at the City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, California.  She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and she has more than 500 publications in peer-reviewed journals and texts.  She is Principal Investigator of the “End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC)” project.  She directs several other funded projects related to palliative care in cancer centers and QOL issues.  Dr. Ferrell was Co-Chairperson of the National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care.

Dr. Ferrell completed a Master’s Degree in Theology, Ethics, and Culture from Claremont Graduate University in 2007.  She has authored 12 books including the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Nursing (5th Edition, 2019) published by Oxford University Press.  She is co-author of the text, The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Nursing published by Oxford University Press (2nd Ed, 2023) and Making Health Care Whole: Integrating Spirituality into Patient Care (Templeton Press, 2010).  In 2013 Dr. Ferrell was named one of the 30 Visionaries in the field by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.  In 2019 she was elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine. In 2021 Dr. Ferrell received the Oncology Nursing Society Lifetime Achievement Award and she was inducted as a “Living Legend” by the American Academy of Nursing.