Learning to Talk About Death: JHF's 2026 Death and Dying Fellowship Wraps
Type: News
Focus Area: Workforce Development
On March 30, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) closed out its 2026 Death and Dying Fellowship, the 12th annual offering of this unique program aimed at preparing emerging health professionals for the medical, ethical, and emotional terrain of serious illness and end-of-life care.
This year’s program brought together 30 fellows from 10 academic institutions across the region. The disciplines represented — including medicine, nursing, social work, public health, physician assistant studies, occupational therapy, theology, and ethics — reflected a simple truth about end-of-life care: no single profession owns it.
The program launched on January 26 with opening remarks from Karen Wolk Feinstein, PhD, JHF's president and CEO, who framed the fellowship within JHF's longstanding commitment to improving care for older adults and reshaping how our health system approaches serious illness and death. Judith Black, MD, JHF medical advisor, wove clinical insight and historical context throughout the program, helping fellows understand how palliative and end-of-life care have evolved — and how much further there is to go.
Over nine in-person and virtual sessions, fellows heard from more than a dozen expert speakers on topics spanning the health trajectory, including having advance care planning conversations in primary care and the importance of naming a health care representative; understanding what CPR actually looks like in seriously ill or frail individuals; navigating POLST in emergency decision-making; caring for children with life-limiting illness; working through ethical dilemmas in the hospital; approaching serious illness conversations across cultural differences; supporting patients through cancer; the value of hospice; and helping others navigate the grief experience.
“I didn't exactly know what to expect other than a learning experience. However, it (the Death & Dying Fellowship) has provoked deeper thinking in both my professional life and my personal life in ways that I could not have anticipated,” said Katie Walters, MPH student, at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. “It has also allowed for opportunities to connect with local hospitals and healthcare facilities while also networking with people in different types of healthcare professions. The Death & Dying Fellowship has been an invaluable experience and I am so grateful to have been part of it."
Site visits to UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, UPMC Shadyside Hospital, Family Hospice of UPMC, and Highmark Caring Place put fellows in the spaces where this work happens, giving them an opportunity to engage with interdisciplinary teams care and hear how they support patients and families at some of the most difficult moments of their lives.
The fellowship concluded with a session led by Robert Arnold, MD, vice chair for Professional Development at Mount Sinai's Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine. He guided the cohort through frameworks for approaching hard conversations with clarity and compassion. Fellows then had the opportunity to put what they’ve learned into practice through small-group role-playing exercises. Community partners and JHF staff observed and offered feedback, allowing fellows the space to explore how it feels to have difficult conversations when the stakes are low.
“As an emergency department nurse, I am reminded daily that time is finite and nothing is guaranteed,” said Kaitlyn Hayes, BSN, MSN student at Chatham University. “Because of this Fellowship, I feel better equipped to sit in silence with grieving families and to accompany them with compassion as we strive together to achieve a good death for the person they love. For that, I will be forever grateful.”
That's ultimately the value of the Death and Dying Fellowship: providing future professionals the opportunity to practice sitting with uncertainty, communicating with honestly and compassion, and showing up for patients in their most vulnerable moments.
