NCHPP & MyNHPCO – Your Connection to the Hospice & Palliative Care Community

When I was working in the hospice provider community as a development and communications professional, I was eager to find peers in similar hospice organizations to network with. I worked at a small, rural, non-profit and was a department of one.

I was thrilled to learn that NHPCO had a group called the National Council of Hospice and Palliative Care Professionals or NCHPP. I was even more excited to learn that the online networking community MyNHPCO existed, giving me the ability to participate in discussions and learn more about what my peers were working on in their own organizations.  I had the ability to connect with others who worked for similar sized organizations and dealt with the same challenges and opportunities that I had dealt with.

When I attended my first MLC, I participated in the NCHPP networking lunch on the first day of the conference. It was so great to meet like-minded professionals in person, and share ideas and struggles.

Now that I’m working on the “other side,” I’m learning more about how valuable NCHPP and MyNHPCO are to our members. NCHPP is community of 14,000 strong and continues to grow every day. If you aren’t connected, what are you waiting for?

NCHPP
NCHPP is a collaborative of 15 discipline-specific groups advancing end-of-life care within their discipline and through interdisciplinary collaboration. NHPCO members can choose a primary and secondary section.

MyNHPCO
NHPCO’s online professional networking community connects you with other hospice and palliative care professionals. You will find a community for your NCHPP sections as well as several others that might interest you. You can share your professional expertise and find solutions to challenges through discussion boards, direct messages, and a comprehensive resource library.

One of the most exciting features of NCHPP is the free monthly chat opportunities. Most NCHPP sections hold a monthly chat on a topic relevant to the section.  Chats are coordinated by the section steering committee and are led by experts in the topic they are instructing. In 2017 the NCHPP community held 82 chats with over 10,400 attendees. Chat topics included: 

• Ethical Considerations in Bereavement Care (Bereavement Professionals) 
• The Top 3 Concerns Families Have About Their Dying Loved One (Certified Nursing Assistant) 
• How to Share Your Stories: Merging Fundraising and Human Interest (Development, PR, Marketing) 
• Building an Integrative Program Utilizing Evidenced-Based Practice and Outcome Measures (Integrative and Rehabilitative Therapies) 
• FAQs & Tips Regarding the HIS and Hospice Quality Reporting Program (Quality Assessment/Performance Improvement) 
• “Why is there a social worker on my couch?” Communicating Our Role to Patients, Families, and Colleagues (Social Work) 
• Soul Candy: Stories, Readings, and Blessings for Centerings and Team Meetings (Spiritual Caregiver) 
• Improving Staff/Volunteer Relationships (Volunteer/Volunteer Management)

Even though you are encouraged to designate only a primary and secondary NCHPP section in your member record in the official database (this is done through the “my account” prompt you may access when logged into nhpco.org}, you can attend chats and follow the activity in other sections through MyNHPCO. If you think there are other sections that might have information relevant to your job or would be of interest, sign up to be a part of that community on MyNHPCO and you will receive chat notifications.  You can sign up for as many MyNHPCO communities as you wish.

I hope you will take advantage of this extremely valuable NHPCO member benefit. Connecting with peers who understand your profession and are eager to share and develop ideas together is priceless. Together we are building a stronger hospice and palliative care community! Join the conversation today.

Amanda M. Bow

Director, Communications, NHPCO