Two faculty members from the University of Washington School of Nursing have been selected to participate in the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) Faculty Development and Leadership in Palliative Care Workshop taking place July 16-17, 2026, in Portland, Oregon.
Mihkai Wickline, PhD, RN, AOCN, TCTCN, Assistant Teaching Professor in Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Informatics, and Kristen Childress, DNP, Teaching Professor in Child, Family, and Population Health Nursing, join other faculty from across the country at this competitive workshop offered through the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.
Wickline brings decades of clinical experience in oncology and hematopoietic cell transplant nursing, having previously completed the ELNEC course as a practicing nurse. Now transitioning to her teaching role, she looks forward to building a network with fellow faculty while expanding her pedagogical toolkit for integrating end-of-life care content into the medical-surgical didactic course she teaches. Childress, who serves as co-director for the UW Palliative Care Training Center, developed three goals for the workshop: describing components of palliative care content for graduate nursing curriculum, developing a plan to integrate palliative care into the family nurse practitioner program, and identifying competency-based learning activities aligned with the school’s curriculum redesign efforts around the new AACN Essentials.
Both faculty members emphasize the profound impact of palliative care education on students and practicing nurses alike. Wickline is eager to develop new cases, activities, and assessments that will help students gain competency in end-of-life communication and care, while Childress highlights how equipping nurses with palliative care skills helps them provide values-aligned care and combat professional burnout. The workshop participation also strengthens a tri-campus initiative, with faculty from UW Seattle, UW Bothell, and UW Tacoma collaborating to integrate evidence-based palliative care content across all nursing programs.