Health care professionals throughout the United States are encouraging patients and their families to document their preferences related to their health care during an awareness campaign known as National Healthcare Decisions Day, celebrated on Tuesday, April 16. Vanderbilt University Medical Center is hosting several events for employees to promote the importance of completing an advance directive for health care.

While Vanderbilt University School of Medicine student Jon Alverio was on rotation with the Vanderbilt Health Palliative Care team, he witnessed the confusion patients often have as they try to complete an advance directive for health care, and he decided to do something about it.

Megan Palmer, RN, a nurse in the Palliative Care Unit at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, wears many hats, but she never imagined writing a song about a perfect Stetson cowboy hat would hold such powerful meaning in her life.

While many might prefer to not think about dying, healthcare professionals throughout the United States are encouraging patients and their families to do just that during a national awareness campaign April 16-22 that promotes the importance of completing an advance directive for healthcare.

Nashville photographer Fred Dusel took a long draw on his ever-present trademark cigar as he studied a richly detailed carbon transfer print of wind-twisted driftwood on a barrier island beach in Georgia.

Past research has proven that palliative care — specialized medical care focused on pain and symptom management as well as psychosocial interventions to improve quality of life — benefits patients with malignant diseases such as aggressive cancers. Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) health care providers are now studying whether palliative care can also benefit those with advanced liver disease, a diagnosis that precedes either a life-saving liver transplant or death.

Nashville musician and producer Jesse Boyce compares the anxiety he felt just before receiving palliative radiation therapy to the jitters he often experienced before going on stage. The instant treatment began — and as the first note rang out — his anxiety was replaced by a sense of peace and determination.