KINGSTON, R.I. — Nov. 5, 2026 — Serious illness is part of the human experience, affecting not only those living with illness but also their families and loved ones. Many people experience it more than once in their lifetime—whether their own illness or caring for a loved one in their hardest moments.

Those navigating serious illness and death often need an extra level of support, not just in management of physical pain and disease, but also in dealing with the psychological, spiritual, cultural, and even legal challenges. University of Rhode Island College of Nursing Associate Professor Sean Reed, who joined the university in fall 2026 as the college’s Weyker Chair for Palliative and End-of-life Care, says palliative care experts provide that support.

“Those in palliative care seek to normalize the human experience of health, illness, death, and dying as a natural process, not something that should be institutionalized or forgotten,” said Reed. “We seek out meaning to illness—when that happens, it’s the antithesis of suffering, and healing can begin. It’s a conduit toward healing, finding meaning, and working through where the patient and the family are in that journey.”

As the college’s leader in palliative care, Reed is developing a nurse-led enterprise in palliative care to promote the discipline and help fill the shortage of healthcare professionals who practice it in the region. He is creating an interdisciplinary undergraduate minor within the college, as well as graduate-level certificates and continuing education courses to prepare current healthcare professionals for palliative and hospice care. Reed is developing the courses for URI Faculty Senate approval, with the hope of beginning classes in summer or fall 2027.

“The overall goal is to bring programming to URI around palliative care for the URI College of Nursing to become known for palliative care in New England,” said Reed, who is staging events on campus during November’s Palliative Care Month to help raise awareness of the critical health discipline.

An event scheduled for Monday, Nov. 16, 5 p.m. in White Hall room 113, is a formalized introduction to palliative care—what it is and what it is not, Reed said. Through punctuated lecturing and open dialogue, Reed will help the audience reflect on their feelings regarding illness and end of life, and their impressions of palliative care.

The Palliative Care Month events, while raising awareness and improving understanding of the discipline among audience members, will also help Reed formulate the curriculum and design the classes currently in production.

“It helps me understand where the audience is, what their thinking is, and where to take it from there to help guide program development at URI,” Reed said. “This is a great opportunity for students to become more acclimated and comfortable around palliative care, and to help gauge interest among undergraduate students—especially among those who might be entering nursing or psychology, philosophy, the arts.”

The program will be truly interdisciplinary, reflecting real-world circumstances. It is not uncommon for a nurse in palliative care to act as a “social worker, chaplain, and psychologist all at once,” Reed said. The program will offer education across several tracks: pharmacopalliation, which may be of interest to nursing and pharmacy students; emotional and psychosocial support, including expressive therapy, for psychology students and arts students interested in music or art therapy, for example; and an ethical and spiritual track for students drawn to philosophy or to questions of faith and meaning.

“People tend to equate palliative care with death and dying only. That is just a fallacy. Why is it we only get this great interdisciplinary support at the end stage of life when we could apply it earlier? The criteria for palliative care is very simple… a diagnosis that affects quality of life,” said Reed. “I wish we could get to a point where death and serious illness are just part of the human experience. What can we do for those we serve to make that as comfortable as possible?”