Our Mission:
From the beginning of Doulagivers Institute, our mission has been expanding and enhancing quality end of life care for all people everywhere in the world and empowering family caregivers with the skills and knowledge they need to provide compassionate care to those they love in the final stages of life.
We offer the highest level of education and certification for full-spectrum, holistic, non-medical end of life care practitioners (known as Doulagivers) that work to create better end of life experiences for patients and families and increase satisfaction with the home hospice experience.
Death is something that all of us will experience no matter our race, religion, or socioeconomic status. We believe that this education to support people to have the most positive end of life experience is a human right, not a privilege, which is why we also offer many FREE Resources for Family Caregivers navigating the end of life journey.
We are currently facing an Elder Care Crisis in the United States and around the world - the mainstream healthcare system is struggling to handle the increased demand of this. Recently released Medicare data revealed that a Hospice worker is only in the home of a patient for 30 minutes per day on average… but the end of life is 24/7. As a result, family members of dying patients are being thrown into caregiver roles with no prior experience or adequate training. There has never been a greater need than right now for more support in this vital area of care, which is what gave birth to the Death Doula Movement.
Doulagivers Institute offers a state-of-the-art, Professional Certification Program that is elevating the non-medical “Death Doula” role to new heights. Professional Doulagivers help guide patients and families through the entire end of life journey, providing support before, during, and after death. These amazing Doulagiver Practitioners are an integral part of expanding and enhancing quality end of life care for the future!
Meet Our Founder & CEO: Suzanne B. O’Brien RN:
Suzanne B. O’Brien RN is the Founder & CEO of Doulagivers Institute. Her life's mission is to increase the availability and access to high quality end of life education and care for patients and families everywhere in the world. Suzanne has developed incredible training programs and resources to enhance end of life care for all people based on her decades of experience working at the bedside of over 1,000 end of life patients as a Hospice Nurse and Palliative Care Professional.
Doulagivers Institute was formed in 2012 by Suzanne after she was moved to action by what she witnessed in the homes of her dying patients as a hospice nurse… both the beautiful, empowering deaths that she feels every person has a right to experience and the heartbreaking, traumatic ones that she recognized were the reality for far too many.
Improving end of life outcomes for all members of the community through education and advocacy, as well as increasing satisfaction with the home hospice care experience is the ultimate goal of Doulagivers Institute.
Suzanne B. O’Brien RN is a Registered Nurse by trade and has been awarded “Worldwide Leader in Healthcare” by the International Nurses Association for creating Doulagivers Institute. She was also named Humanitarian Ambassador for Oprah Magazine in 2019 for her work to bring peace and comfort to those facing the end of life around the world. Suzanne is a pioneer in the Death Doula and Death Positive Movements and hopes to bring back that awareness of death as being the greatest teacher about LIFE.
