Welcome to the combined Bachelors/Masters degree program in Pastoral
Thanatology, offered by Breyer State University. You have made
a wise decision to pursue study and acquire the knowledge and
skills needed to practice in this growing pastoral and behavioral
health specialty. This area of specialty practice is growing all
the time and many well trained professionals and pastoral ministers
are needed throughout the world to provide support, care and ministry
to the dying. Obtaining the credential from a quality program
is essential to capitalize on this career and ministry opportunity.
You have made an excellent choice for your continuing education
and skill attainment. I am sure you will be pleased with our degree
program's course of study.
This comprehensive college-based course is developed
to provide learners with an understanding of the major psychosocial
issues related to death and dying, and the needs of the dying.
This course is a foundational course in the combined degree curriculum.
This
is a eight-semester hour course. This course is allotted ten weeks
of time. You must complete all of the requirements for the course
successfully by the end of the ten-week period. The first day
of week one will begin the day that you register for the course,
or the day which you notify me that your textbook has arrived
and you are ready to begin your studies. Please be cognizant of
the time frame. It is rare that extensions of time are permitted,
unless you have good justification. Upon successful completion
of this course, you will be awarded eight-semester hours of credit.
There are two (2)
required textbooks for this course.
Book 1: “How We Die,” by Sherwin B. Nuland. New York;
Vintage Books, a division of Random House Inc. 1995. ISBN # 0-679-41461-4.
Book 2: “The Needs of the Dying: a guide for bringing hope,
comfort, and love to life’s final chapter,” by David
Kessler. New York;Quill:2000. ISBN # 0-06-095821-9.
These texts may be found at your local bookstore. Your local bookstore
most often will order them as a special order for you. Or, you may
purchase them online from:
Amazon.com at
www.amazon.com
Barnes & Nobel at
www.bn.com
Borders Books at
www.borders.com
Order your books as soon as possible so that you
can begin your course of study.
Examinations are
taken online via the Breyer State University web site. Once you
have registered for this program, you will receive instructions
on accessing and taking the examinations. There are two (2) examinations
for this course, a mid-term exam and a final exam.
Examinations are objective
type or short answer. The number of questions per examination
varies. The grading scale is:
90-100% = A
80-89% = B
70-79% = C
Below 70% = Fail
You are encouraged
to communicate with me. I am available as a teacher, coach, and
mentor to assist you in meeting your goals for this course. Primarily,
communication is through email. However, I am also available for
conversation by telephone. Our classroom for this course has a
"chat" room. I am also very willing to meet with you
one-on-one in the chat room at your request. From time to time,
depending on how many students are enrolled in this course at
a particular time, we will have some scheduled group chats. You
will receive more detailed information at the time such chat sessions
are scheduled.
Dominick
L. Flarey, Ph.D., MBA, RN,CS, CNAA, FACHE, is President of Dominick
L. Flarey and Associates, a health care consulting and education
firm, located in northeast Ohio. He has held positions as a certified
nurse practitioner, associate administrator of patient care, chief
operating office and administrator in acute care hospitals. He
is Dean of Nursing and Alternative Health Care Programs at Canyon
College, and lectures for Cross Country Seminars national seminar
company based in Nashville. He was an executive consultant to
a national "big 6" accounting firm's health care practice
and was a service line administrator and consultant for case management
for another national consulting firm. He holds a BSN, an MBA,
and Doctorates in nursing administration and management. He is
a certified adult nurse practitioner and certified clinical hypnotherapist.
He is also certified as a Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse by the
American Nurses Credentialing Center in Washington, DC. He lectures
extensively across the country on Management, including models,
systems, outcomes and legal/ethical issues. He also lectures nationally
on the topic of Biopsychiatry. His clinical practice includes
hypnotherapy's for Grief and Bereavement, care of adults with
depression, anxiety disorders and panic disorder. He uses hypnotherapy's,
guided meditation and visualization in his work with those grieving.
He is co-author/editor of two textbooks on Case Management (see
below) and is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal,
"Nursing Case Management: Managing the Process of Patient
Care."
Dr. Flarey is also certified in nursing administration advanced.
He is a board certified health care executive by the American
College of Healthcare Executives, and is a Fellow in the college.
He also holds national certification in managed care from the
Professional Education Institute. He is a Certified Medical-Legal
Consultant.
He is editor-in-chief of JONA's (Journal of Nursing Administration)
Healthcare Law, Ethics, and Regulation. He is a member of the
editorial boards of the Journal of Nursing Administration, Seminars
for Nurse Managers, Case Management: Managing the Process of Patient
Care, and Nursing Outcomes. He has authored over 50 published
articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Dr. Flarey is editor/author of the book, "Redesigning Nursing
Care Delivery: Transforming Our Future," published by Lippincott/Raven
publishers. He is also co-editor/author of the following books
by Aspen Publishers: "Reengineering Nursing and Health Care:
The Handbook for Organizational Transformation," winner of
a 1995 AJN book of the year award, "The Handbook of Nursing
Case Management: Health Care Delivery in a World of Managed Care,"
"Case Studies in Case Management," "Health Care
Outcomes: Collaborative, Path-Based Approaches," and "Cardiovascular
Outcomes: Collaborative, Path-Based Approaches," and "Process-Centered
Healthcare Organizations."
Upon
registration, you will be given my e-mail address. I am available
periodically through e-mail, so please e-mail me any questions
that may occur. That is why I am here. I will do everything to
help you as much as possible. Please do not wait until the end
of the class to try to get help. It will be too late. Anytime
your grade falls below C, I will try to contact you about it.
If I do not, please do not hesitate to contact me through e-mail.
As
soon as you receive your textbooks for the course, you may begin
your course of study. Once you
have registered for the course, I will send to you a letter of
introduction with more explanations and the course assignments.
Upon completion of this course, you
will be able to:
1). Discuss society’s perceptions of death and dying.
2). Understand dying from the dying person’s perspective.
3). Discuss major contemporary issues related to death and dying.
4). Discuss current mortality statistics.
5). Discuss and share personal perspectives on death and dying.
6). Discuss major life threatening illnesses.
7) Discuss AIDS and death and dying.
8). Understand cancer illness and terminal illness.
9). Discuss issues related to emotional expressions by the dying.
10). Define the major needs of dying patients.
11). Discuss society’s fear of death.
12). Define and discuss issues of participatory decision making.
13). Understand and discuss the physiology of pain.
14). Understand and discuss the psychology of pain.
15). Define and discuss major issues of spirituality in dying.
16). Define and discuss major issues related to dying children.
17). Define the physiology of death.
18). Discuss the issue of dying alone.
19). Identify major pastoral interventions to assist the dying
with grace and dignity.
20). Identify major pastoral interventions for dealing with emotions
of the dying.
21). Begin to conceptualize the role of the professional pastoral
thanatologist.
1). Issues in death and dying.
2). How we die.
3). Truths about death and dying.
4). Mortality statistics.
5). Aging and death.
6). Alzheimer’s disease.
7). Murder.
8). Accidents, suicides, euthanasia.
9). AIDS.
10). Cancer patients.
11). Expressing emotions.
12). Decision making.
13). Physiology of Pain.
14). Emotions of Pain.
15). Spirituality and Dying.
16). Children and Dying.
17). Physiology of Death.
18). The body and dying.
19). Primary needs of the dying.
GRF 150 and GRF 200 are pre-requisites for this course along with
a high school diploma.
If you have any questions regarding this program, you may address
them to
admassistant@breyerstate.com.
An administrative faculty member will respond to all questions.
