Katie Duncan has seen more death than most. Throughout her career, Katie has fulfilled many roles as an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and hospice nurse, as well as nursing professor. Currently, she is an end-of-life coach and national board-certified Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner. These experiences have opened her eyes to the limitations of the healthcare system, especially when it comes to end-of-life care.
Working in healthcare, she was constantly being pushed to see more and more patients in less and less time. As you can imagine, this prevented her ability to spend adequate quality time with patients and their families. But such is the business of healthcare and if you’ve ever left an appointment feeling like you were rushed out the door, you know what it’s like.
As someone who became a healthcare provider out of a genuine desire to help people, this didn’t sit well with Katie. Especially not when she had to care for dying patients and their families, who need and deserve a lot more than rushed attention. It just wasn’t fair, so Katie decided to take a step back from healthcare and start her own business.
As the founder and CEO of Death Care Coach, she’s working towards bridging the gaps. As such, Katie offers exceptional and empathetic end-of-life coaching and guidance to anyone with an advanced or terminal illness, families, caregivers, healthcare workers, end-of-life doulas, and more.
The Driving Force Behind Death Care Coach
When you’re given the heartbreaking news that a loved one is dying, the shock that follows is incomprehensible. Once that shock wears off a little, you’re overcome by a feeling of uncertainty. You quickly realize you have no idea how to navigate this situation.
As your loved one goes through the stages of dying, it feels as if you’re flying by the seat of your pants. You’re doing your best to take everything in and heed the instructions of your hospice or healthcare team. You can’t help but feel an incredible lack of control.
That’s because none of us are taught how to care for or support our dying loved ones. We are not taught how to be present with someone in one of the most vulnerable, personal, and arguably one of the most significant parts of our lives.
But Katie believes we all deserve to have a better end-of-life experience with those we love. That’s why she has dedicated her career to empowering families with individualized services and valuable resources that help people understand and navigate the dying process.
Why Choose Death Care Coach
One of the most important services Death Care Coach offers is 1-on-1 death coaching, which is entirely personalized for clients diagnosed with a terminal illness or their families. The main objective is to help people take back control and make this a meaningful time by providing them with the tools, understanding, guidance, and support they need.
Katie’s work is fueled by her unwavering commitment to helping terminal patients live out the rest of their lives on their terms and supporting their families so they don’t feel so helpless or alone.
Death Care Coach also offers an online program called the End-Of-Life Blueprint For Families. This is designed to help families find peace as they navigate the end-of-life process, which can quickly get overwhelming. This program is the first of its kind and it provides not just understanding, but relief.
Additionally, Katie has authored a couple of books. “The Dying Process: Your Essential Guide To Understanding Signs, Symptoms & Changes At The End Of Life”, which is also available in Spanish, has helped hundreds to reframe the self-doubt and uncertainties many people face when caring for someone at the end of life.
On the other hand, “Dear Caregiver, It’s Your Life Too: 71 Self-Care Tips To Manage Stress, Avoid Burnout And Find Joy Again While Caring For A Loved One” is aimed at caregivers. In her book, Katie shares actionable tips to help caregivers find balance between caring for others and living fully, which is essential in such an emotionally and physically demanding role.
Katie Duncan’s Approach to Death Coaching
As a death coach, Katie helps empower families and those who want to support the dying by giving them the knowledge, tools, and understanding to better navigate the end-of-life journey, make sense of the dying process, better support the dying person’s quality of life, and be more present in this precious and deeply important time.
What makes Death Care Coach unique is Katie because she has been on both sides of the fence. She has studied, trained, and experienced caring for acutely ill and dying patients, and also cared for her grandfather as he was dying in hospice care at home.
Katie knows the healthcare system and how it works from the inside. She knows the limitations that often held her back as a practitioner from being able to give patients and families everything they needed. Equally as important, she knows what it’s like to be on the family side of things and what people go through when they have to stand by their loved ones through the dying process stages.
Using her experiences from both sides of the fence, she created a coaching business that she believes may be the first of its kind – coaching families through their loved one’s dying process. For her, it’s always an honor to be a part of a family’s team – to hold a safe space for their emotions, validate their experience and help them find peace as they honor their loved ones through their end-of-life journey.
Death Care Coach: Support and Empowerment in Life’s Final Stage
As a death coach, Katie does the incredibly important work of supporting and empowering terminal patients and their families. Life’s final stage shouldn’t lack dignity and her work helps to improve the dying experience for as many families as possible. For that, she is truly remarkable.
If you or a loved one is facing a terminal illness or if you want to be better prepared to support someone through their end-of-life journey, Katie Duncan provides expert and empathetic guidance.
To learn more about Death Care Coach, visit their website or get in touch with them.
