Approved for Continuing Education

*Please note: In order to be eligible for CE credit, you must register with your full name (as it appears on your professional license) and your license state and number.

Approved by NCBTMB for 2 CEUs for massage therapists.

Course Description

Cal Cates and Regina Tosca, LICSW, team up to talk about the elephant in the room. Explore the tenderness, the difficulty, and the humanity of death and dying in the pediatric care setting.

About the series...

As every parent knows, children are not adults in tiny bodies. Their development, needs, and care are different. This is especially true in medical care. Diseases (like cancer) may have similar names for adults and children, but the presentation, treatment, and prognosis can be very different. In a series of six webinars, Healwell teams up with experts in pediatric care to bring you in depth information on pediatric pathologies. If you want to be part of the team working with children in a clinical setting, this knowledge is essential. If you are curious, but unsure, these webinars will give you an informed introduction.

You can take one, two, or all six online courses.

Note: Completion of all six courses is required for acceptance into our live Pediatric Massage in the Clinical Setting course.

Course curriculum

  • 1

    Welcome!

    • About the instructors

    • Course Description

    • A brief word . . .

  • 2

    Part One

    • Meet Regina Tosca

    • Who knows what? When do they know it?

    • Common Fears

  • 3

    Part Two

    • Developmental Awareness

    • Family Dynamics

    • Siblings

  • 4

    Part Three

    • What about the afterlife?

    • Moral Distress & Moral Injury

    • Disenfranchised Grief & Compassion Fatigue

  • 5

    Part Four

    • Parental & Professional Coping

    • Self-Awareness & Boundaries

    • Holding Space: Palliative Care in the NICU at Johns Hopkins Children's Center

    • Want to continue the conversation?

  • 6

    Writing Assignment

    • Writing Assignment

    • Holding Space: Palliative Care in the NICU at Johns Hopkins Children's Center

  • 7

    Resources

    • A pediatric hospice nurse on parents asking, “Am I going to be able to do this, survive this?”

    • A family shares their pediatric hospice experience.

    • How To Think About Death With Claire Wineland

    • What it Feels Like to Die with Claire Wineland

  • 8

    Final Quiz

    • Pediatric End of Life Issues

Instructors

Guest Instructor

Regina Tosca

Regina uses techniques from cognitive-behavioral therapy, neurofeedback, and more to treat issues such as grief, anxiety, and trauma. She has extensive experience working with chronic and terminal illness in a hospital setting. Regina previously worked in the palliative care program at Washington Hospital Center, providing counseling, crisis intervention and stress management to terminally ill patients and their families, and in the bone marrow transplant program at Children’s National Medical Center, where she worked with seriously ill children, adolescents and their families. She has specialized training in working with children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disabilities. Regina has been involved in clinical research on social work practice with the serious and terminally ill. She is passionate about working with companion animal bereavement. Regina received her master’s in social work from the National Catholic University in Washington.

Instructor & Executive Director

Cal Cates

Cal has been teaching and developing curriculum for massage therapy courses focused on hospital-based practice, oncology massage and end of life care since 2007. Their experience in clinical practice in hospitals around the US has informed their teaching style greatly. Cal is clear that massage therapy is healthcare and feels a personal commitment to inviting students to consider themselves as integral to a whole person healing process. Their favorite thing about teaching healthcare providers is the ability to blend nerdiness and authenticity to create opportunities to be more effective, more human and more flexible.

Healwell's programs are supported in part by generous people like you. Donate today and choose love, compassion, and evidence-based care that acknowledges that humans are important.