Biography Received 2011 "Woman of Hope Award"
Judy Flickinger was a hospice nurse for the last twelve years of her forty two-year professional life as a registered nurse. During her hospice career, she worked directly with hundreds of dying persons and their loved ones.
Early in her hospice work, Judy came to realize that a successful hospice outcome depended as much, if not more so, on the condition of the patient’s spirit as it did on the condition of the patient’s body. She recognized that a healthy spirit could make the difference between a miserable death and a positive, meaningful end-of-life experience for both the patients and their loved ones.
Judy retired in 2001 to write Spirit Matters: How to Remain Fully Alive with a Life-Limiting Illness, not only to pass on what she learned, which is vitally important to persons facing a life-limiting illness, but also to fulfill her promise to many of her hospice patients that their stories would be told so that others would benefit from what they had learned.
For several years before her retirement, Judy was a guest lecturer for medical education programs at various local colleges and Cleveland State University. She developed and, for many years, taught certified continuing education programs for nurses and social workers involved in hospice and home care. Judy has given community education talks (far too many to count). Judy has been on television and radio, and has written and been interviewed for articles published in several newspapers. Judy is the former president of the North Coast Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association and has served on the Ohio Hospice Association Education Committee.
Early in her hospice work, Judy came to realize that a successful hospice outcome depended as much, if not more so, on the condition of the patient’s spirit as it did on the condition of the patient’s body. She recognized that a healthy spirit could make the difference between a miserable death and a positive, meaningful end-of-life experience for both the patients and their loved ones.
Judy retired in 2001 to write Spirit Matters: How to Remain Fully Alive with a Life-Limiting Illness, not only to pass on what she learned, which is vitally important to persons facing a life-limiting illness, but also to fulfill her promise to many of her hospice patients that their stories would be told so that others would benefit from what they had learned.
For several years before her retirement, Judy was a guest lecturer for medical education programs at various local colleges and Cleveland State University. She developed and, for many years, taught certified continuing education programs for nurses and social workers involved in hospice and home care. Judy has given community education talks (far too many to count). Judy has been on television and radio, and has written and been interviewed for articles published in several newspapers. Judy is the former president of the North Coast Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association and has served on the Ohio Hospice Association Education Committee.