Division of Quality of Life and Palliative Care

This program provides initial consultations and follow up in both inpatient and outpatient settings. We also coordinate home-based care for patients in a variety of settings including local St. Jude housing, and other local, national, and even international locations.  We provide consultations to patients in each of the general clinical services at St. Jude including infectious diseases, hematology, oncology, radiation oncology and After Completion of Treatment (ACT). 

This clinic serves as a setting for outpatient new consultations and provides follow-up care for existing patients. 

This program affords patients the opportunity to receive consultations and follow-up visits from integrative medicine providers in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Services include acupoint (acupuncture and acupressure), massage therapy, yoga, reiki, and aromatherapy.  

In partnership with LeBonheur Children’s Medical Center and Methodist Alliance Home Health and Hospice we created QOLA Kids, a palliative care and hospice bridge program which enables the provision of quality of home-based care for eligible patients.

This licensed, Medicare-certified program provides patient and family-centered home care — such as nursing care, personal care and home infusion education visits — in St. Jude housing structures. The list of services and patients able to be cared for is projected to expand as the program continues to develop.  

St. Jude serves a global population, and not all patients stay in Memphis for the entirety of their treatment. Many return to their home environments, especially for end-of-life care. Utilizing our expertise in complex care-coordination and 24/7 on-call availability, our service facilitates home-based care and support for patients in their preferred setting whenever possible. 

This program provides support and information for families who have lost a child. A bereavement specialist is on staff to support the needs of the family, emphasizing the important role that St. Jude and its clinical providers serve throughout the disease trajectory, including their grief journey. 

We have created a novel clinical education training paradigm and have provided proactive palliative care educational efforts across St Jude. Fellowship opportunities include the University of Tennessee/St. Jude Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program and the combined Hematology/Oncology and Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Track aimed for physicians developing as pediatric palliative oncologists.

We also offer the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium, Vital Talk Clinical Fellow Communication Boot Camp and Booster sessions, Pediatric Palliative Oncology Symposium and local, regional and global clinical learners (elective rotations) and Education in Palliative and End-of-Life Care for Pediatrics (EPEC-Pediatrics).  Trained bereaved parent educators are an integral part of our educational program offering unique perspective and insight.

We have established a robust research program utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Our state of the art research protocols include St Jude initiated and collaborative investigation.  Our research programs focuses on the advancement of palliative care integration in pediatric oncology, symptom assessment and management, communication science,  supportive care, bereavement, ethics, and quality improvement. 

St. Jude Global recognizes the significant global needs of children with life-threatening conditions. Therefore, we have partnered to create and collaborate with the Global Palliative Care Program to improve the quality of life of all children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. This program defines the current state of palliative care in underserved communities throughout the world and drives interventions; we do so in collaboration with our global partners to relieve suffering of patients and families through culturally sensitive projects in education, implementation and advocacy.