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Faith Community Nurse Network

Bridging Faith and Health

April 10, 2025 – Continuing Education Symposium

Honoring Choices and Advanced Care Planning: What’s New?

Female home caregiver talking with senior woman, sitting in living room and listening to her carefully.

When: Thursday, April 10, 2025  9:15 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Central Time

Where: Via Zoom

What to bring: Your Healthcare Directive, this case study packet.


Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87943518062?pwd=6wqZJOxWB2XoLm4GYCUqiadbg6i7yz.1

Meeting ID: 879 4351 8062
Passcode: 627864

Check out our Virtual Exhibit Hall to learn more about our Program Sponsor, Lifespark, and our other Collaborative Partners.

Description: Honoring Choices, Minnesota will guide us through the recent changes in Advance Care Directives and the role of FCNs and other health professionals in helping individuals ensure their wishes for health care are respected.  We’ll examine the spiritual care aspects of advance care planning.

FCN Scope and Standard: This symposium addresses Standard 5 A: Coordination of Care: The FCN advocates for the delivery of dignified and whole-person humane care by the interprofessional team.

Learning Outcomes:

  1. List reasons why health professionals should encourage advance care planning.
  2. Describe recent changes in health care directives.
  3. Identify communication strategies for health professionals to help them facilitate advance care planning with a variety of health care consumers.
  4. Describe resources in Minnesota and nationwide for advance care planning.
  5. Discuss spiritual needs and spiritual care related to advance care planning.

Schedule:

8:55-9:10 Please check in to Zoom so we can start on time. Thank you!

 9:15 Welcome and Prayer

 9:20 FCNN Updates: Sam Sleeman and Sondra Weinzierl

 9:30 Heather Thonvold, Director, Honoring Choices, Minnesota

10:30 Break

10:40 Heather Thonvold continues 

11:20 Presentations by Sponsors and Collaborative Partners

11:40 Break

11:50 Reverend Ed Holland presents

12:30 Case Studies and Discussion—Ed Holland and Sondra Weinzierl

12:55 Summary and Evaluation

  1:00 Adjourn

This program is sponsored by the Faith Community Nurse Network of the Greater Twin Cities and provides three Continuing Education Credits designed to meet the criteria for CEs in the State of Minnesota for RNs.  Other health professionals should check with their licensing body to see if these credits meet their criteria.

Tech Support: Call 651 – 204 – 0904 for assistance. Or text 612 – 363 – 8251.

Presenters:

Heather Thonvold, Executive Director, Honoring Choices, MN

Heather (they/them) assumed the role of Executive Director of Honoring Choices in December 2023. Prior to that, Heather worked for over a decade in the healthcare and senior services fields, most recently as an Assisted Living Executive Director. Heather is a Board-Certified Chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains and served patients and families in the Allina Hospice program for seven years. Heather is a proud veteran and served in the Air Force Reserve as a chaplain candidate.

Heather holds a Master of Divinity from Seattle University and a BA from Marquette University, where they competed on the Division-I Track and Field Team. Heather recently completed a second master’s degree in organizational leadership from Saint Catherine University in Saint Paul, MN. They originally hail from Washington State and love being outside, preferably while drinking a good cup of coffee. However, Heather’s greatest accomplishment in life is being married to the amazing Aubrey for 11 years and building a life of compassion, authenticity, and joy.

The Rev. Edward J. Holland, MDiv, BCC (Ret), MFT (Ret), Board of Directors, Honoring Choice, MN served as the Coordinator of Spiritual Care & Grief Support with Park Nicollet Methodist Hospice in Minneapolis, a program he helped to create in 1979. Ed is a United Methodist minister, a retired Board-Certified Chaplain (BCC-APC), a certified Gestalt therapist and a retired marriage and family therapist.

Ed served on the National Hospice & Palliative Care’s (NHPCO) Spiritual Care Section Steering Committee and was a “content expert” and co-editor of the first and second editions of NHPCO’s Guidelines for Spiritual Care in Hospice. He is a past president of Minnesota Hospice Organization (MHO – now known as the Minnesota Network of Hospice & Palliative Care or MNHPC), has served as a member of their Ethics Committee and chaired their Clergy Education Task Force. Currently, Ed serves as a member of MNHPC’s Education & Training Committee. Ed is a certified Respecting Choices© Advance Care Planning Facilitator & Instructor and serves as a volunteer member of Park Nicollet’s Advance Care Planning Team, focusing on community education. Ed is a former Board member of the Minnesota Coalition for Death Education & Support (MCDES) and a former Board member (Secretary) of the Faith Community Nurse Network of the Twin Cities. He has also served as a leader with his denomination’s Health Ministries Team since 1976. More recently, Ed serves as a member of MN Interfaith Clergy for End-of-Life Options, a Compassion & Choices advocacy group.

Sondra Weinzierl, MA, BAN.  Sondra received her Master’s Degree in Adult Education from the U of St. 

Thomas and has provided training, team facilitations, strategic planning and health promotion consulting to a wide variety of organizations in government, health care, education and industry.  She served as a faith community nurse in faith communities in Minnesota and Boston. She is the Director of Education for the Faith Community Nurse Network.

Downloadable Materials —- Please note you can choose which materials that you would like to print. We recommend printing the Case Studies and the CE Documentation.