What is an End of Life Coach? 

My nursing career began in 1978. Fresh off the family farm, a position as a nurse's aid at a "nursing home" in small town Saskatchewan gave me my first experience in taking care of the dying. Since that summer, I worked in acute care in Saskatoon then moved to Edmonton for my BScN. Cardiology, med-surg, neurology, Health Link, long-term care, home care and palliative home care became my main nursing areas.

In 2024, I made the decision to pivot my nursing practice from hands-on bedside care into consulting and collaboration. I took my nearly 50 years of healthcare/deathcare wisdom and repackaged it, away from the medical model of task-based practice into holistic, wellness-based, client-led conversations filtered through the heart of a nurse. 

The result was "Death Maven: Canadian death care navigation", based on fierce advocacy for informed choice.

Challenging How We Think About Death 

When we think about death and dying, we most often gravitate towards the most common images of those words: grave/burial/cremation and the like. However, do those ideas simply identify an abrupt "end point" over which we have no control?

Is there a place where we are able to facilitate a different kind of therapeutic conversation around the "before" of death? I'm not talking about the hours before, I am thinking years before. Could we live our lives right now and make decisions while we are still living and breathing to maybe, just maybe, make that "end point" less scary? Less traumatic?

My Unique Approach: Not to Replace Medicine, But Together With It

My unique style and skill set inspires an "outside of the casket" reframing of life and death experience. I combine healthcare's compassion, clarity, and foresight with yearning for a different conversation—one that is more robust and real, exploring unconventional, relevant resources where adults have the authority to make their own choices.

Not to replace medicine, but together with it. Not instead of technology but because of it.

Your choice of supportive services and modalities will be compassionately curated into a care plan:

• Comprehensive list of holistic resources including music, humor and therapeutic touch

• Creative legacy projects that will continue to touch the hearts of loved ones

• Expanding spiritual awareness

The Canadian health care system requires informed consent and "decision" making. This privilege is a lifetime endeavor and needs input the most during the last decade of life. Can being a true participant in wellness also mean planning to die well? This topic is not on anyone's radar until it is too late, but people can and do have a say in the journey.

Death hasn't changed but how we navigate it has.

Powerful end-of-life conversations, fierce advocacy of informed consent, ethical dialogue and the individuality of dying well ensure that a "good" death is not an afterthought in medical care, but a planned, holistic, personalised process. My presentations transform the narrative around death with irreverent discussions. This resulting breakdown of traditional "permission structures" is met with delight and relief: people anchor in the love of life rather than the fear of death.

I Believe It's Not Just About Living Well, It's About Dying Well

Shifting our approach to death care matters. I invite you to speak with someone who's witnessed the wisdom of bedside nursing for nearly a half century. I believe that it's not just about living well, it's about dying well.

Let's talk…

Ready to Transform Your Approach to End-of-Life Care?

If you're interested in connecting with an end-of-life coach, reach out to Healtheon today at info@healtheon.ca.

Together, we can create a more holistic, compassionate approach to life's final chapter—because when it comes to the humanity of death, "there's no app for that."

By Marilyn Moldowan, RN, BScN