Palliative Arts
Thrive By Arts
As palliative care specialists – with our emphasis on the person instead of just the disease, on the holistic picture instead of just the technical details – we can help keep medicine grounded in the timeless and truly important. Integrating the arts – stories, music, literature, and more – in everything we do is an engaging and effective way to do this. We prioritize cultivating a culture of thriving for our team members. We have crafted and integrated a program we call Thrive by Design, which addresses wellness on multiple levels: systems, team, and personal.
Program Highlights
Memorial Service
With sponsorship from the Center for Innovative Medicine, the Palliative Care Program and Spiritual Care Department co-hosted our inaugural memorial service in July 2025. At the heart of this service was our commitment to seeing people as whole beings — not defined solely by their diagnoses or final days, but by their stories, relationships, and presence. Through music, poetry, personal reflections, and silence, we wove a collective tapestry of memory, grief, and gratitude. Each note played by Sean Brennan, a Johns Hopkins Peabody Institute musician, and each word spoken during the ceremony, reminded us of the beauty and fragility of life — and of our responsibility to carry forward the legacies of those we’ve served. In creating this space for reflection, we cared not only for the memory of our patients, but for the well-being of those who loved and cared for them — including our clinical teams. By integrating the arts into our rituals and rhythms, we stay connected to the soul of medicine: the ability to bear witness, to offer presence, and to honor life in all its stages. This gathering was a sacred reminder that even in death, there is music, there is story, and there is love.
Annual Team Retreat
In 2024, our team spent the day off campus for our annual retreat — a time to reflect, reconnect, and plan for the year ahead. Together, we reviewed our SMART Goals, celebrated our accomplishments, and set a shared vision for the future of our palliative care program. The day offered valuable space for collaboration, creativity, and renewed commitment to our mission of compassionate, patient-centered care.
Narrative Pieces by Our Team
We have found that reflective writing is an important way for us to process the work we do, and we take joy in sharing our stories with others. Here are a few recent examples:
Lessons From A Zoom Thanksgiving Applied to Patient Care
The word “want” may leave patients wanting
Exercising for Wellness During the Pandemic
Insights from “Dying in the Neurological ICU”
Helping Patients Share Disappointing Diagnoses With Loved Ones
End-Of-Life Care During the Pandemic