April 27, 2001

She has traveled the globe on a journey of healing and hope, sharing her wisdom with such prominent world leaders as the Queen of England and Pope John II. More important, she brings her insight to those who face death and the caregivers charged with making their last moments peaceful and painless. On April 20, Dame Cicely Saunders, OM, DBE, FRCP, FRCN — considered the founder of the modern hospice movement — shared her experiences with a crowd of MGHers, members of the MGH Institute of Health Professions and other Massachusetts hospice professionals gathered in the Shriners Burns Hospital auditorium.

Saunders' presentation — sponsored by the Institute, the MGH Center for Clinical and Professional Development, Harvard Medical School Palliative Care Center, Hospice of the North Shore and the New England AIDS Education and Training Center — incorporated a wide spectrum of personal anecdotes, reflections and insights into the complex mission of bringing quality care to the terminally ill. Four Institute nursing students and a professional cellist opened the program with a musical, theatrical and literary tribute to Saunders, based upon their own experiences in caring for the dying.

Ann W. Caldwell, president of the Institute, reminded the audience that Saunders "has made a new path to follow in caring for people when they are most in need."

In her presentation, Saunders noted a historical tendency to "focus intently on caring for the ill while ignoring the plight of the dying." It was this tendency — along with the influence of a patient who left her 500 British pounds and a lesson about the importance of openness in caring for the dying — that prompted Saunders to establish St. Christopher's Hospice in London in 1967. Her visit to Yale University during the same year is widely viewed as having accelerated the spread of the hospice movement in the United States. Saunders previously had trained as a nurse during World War II, studied philosophy and social science at Oxford and later earned certification as a British physician.

Saunders explained that care for the dying is defined "not by the drugs that caregivers use, but in the way that they use them." Urging hospice workers to treat their patients' pain on an emotional level as well as a physical level, she offered a poignant reminder: "We must not give up fighting for what is right. We must concern ourselves with giving patients what they want and deserve — a good death."

Dame Cicely Saunders with Andrew Billings, MD,
director of MGH Palliative Care Services