| Patrice O'Connor |
Born in New York, Patrice O'Connor's career has spanned nursing, nurse administration, teaching, and thirty years as a Nun.
After a spell nursing in Pakistan, Patrice O'Connor returned to the USA in 1979 at a time when New York State was funding
experimental programmes in terminal care, and she was invited to become the administrator for the St Luke's Hospital Hospice/Palliative
Care Programme. This programme had been established in the early 1970s by Reverend Carleton Sweetser (present at the interview,
but too ill to contribute a great deal). The interview charts the many funding problems that beset the St Luke's programme
and finally forced its closure in 1989-90, the Medicare reimbursement programme, the development of the 'scattered bed' model
of palliative care teams working in hospitals (also known as Hospital Support Teams), the educational programme at St Luke's
Hospital (1990-93), the International Work Group on Death Dying and Bereavement, and AIDS.
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| Interview conducted by Neil Small, 28 February 1996 |
| Interview Duration: 1 hour, 41 minutes |
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