Heartlinks Welcomes New Palliative Care Practitioner

Heartlinks Hospice & Palliative Care has announced the addition of a new nurse practitioner, John Rogers, DNP, ARNP, FNP-C, who will provide palliative care consultations to patients and their families in many settings including in the hospital, in the home, in a life care setting, and in the physician’s office.
 
What is palliative care? 
Palliative care offers pain and symptom management, emotional support, and spiritual support for those who face chronic, debilitating, or life-threatening illness. Palliative care specialists work with you, your family and your care team to improve your quality of life during and after treatment for your specific medical concern. Palliative care can be provided in tandem with life-prolonging therapies. 
 
“Heartlinks has always been committed to holistic care, and palliative care is an important addition for our patients who have chronic illnesses because it empowers the individual to make choices about his or her treatment and to live life to the fullest as the patient defines it,” said Debra Roe-Johnson, RN, CHPN, Clinical Director for Heartlinks.
 
About John Rogers
John graduated with his Registered Nursing Degree in 1999 and then worked for nearly seven years at a hospital in the Tri-Cities, taking care of critically ill patients. Looking to advance his profession, John proceeded to complete his Baccalaureate of Science in Nursing and graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2002.  From there he proceeded to complete his Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner (ARNP) in Family Practice Medicine and became Nationally Board Certified in 2004. Since that time, John has earned his Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). 
 
He has worked providing family practice medicine treating patients from birth to geriatrics ever since. When asked, John says that he holds an “a deep passion for the treatment of geriatric patients, enabling them to age in place at the setting of their desire”. John has lived here locally for over thirty years.
 
Patients who think palliative care would be helpful should discuss this with their primary care doctor. Patients remain under the care of their own physicians. Palliative care professionals can recommend ways to manage physical symptoms, discuss “next steps” and offer access to other professionals to address emotional and spiritual symptoms that can be a part of chronic and often life-limiting illnesses.