Katie DeMarco, DNP, MSHS, APN, ACHPN

Dr. Katie DeMarco is a Palliative APN and Clinical Supervisor at Hackensack Meridian Health – Hackensack University Medical Center's Pain & Palliative Medicine Institute. Katie has been practicing specialty palliative care for over 15 years; providing consults at the HUMC hospital, skilled nursing facilities, and palliative appointments in the ALS ambulatory clinic, palliative-oncology, and palliative-movement disorder clinic. Katie leads a large interprofessional palliative care service at HUMC. Her passion is to focus on clinical personhood and innovate to catalyze positive change.

Katie has obtained a Master’s of Health Science in End of Life Care and earned a clinical Doctorate in Palliative Care; both from George Washington University. She also has a BA in Human Services, BS in Nursing, MSN in Family Practice, and is a medical Massage Therapist. Katie serves by participating in both state and national palliative organizations. She is a board-certified Hospice and Palliative Care advanced practice nurse, and in 2024 was inducted into Hospice and Palliative Nurse’s Association as a Fellow in Palliative Nursing.

My first recollection of having a palliative intention was in early childhood. I often told my mom that I wanted to, "hold hearts in my hands" when I was older. My life path prepared and affirmed my focus; it has often felt like an instinct and yet I was uncertain what to call this path. I am grateful to late GWU Professor Paul Tschudi, putting a name, "Palliative Care", to my intention. As a foundation, I chose the nursing profession as it represented integrity, comprehensive clinical wholeness, and has deep rooted trust with patients and communities. This was a role choice was a strategy recognizing that the palliative continuum is often misunderstood.

When I was in nursing school, I had several clinical rotations at Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC). At that time, I started drafting palliative vision for the hospital. In 2006 I imagined the palliative program, innovated concepts while working as a night shift Staff Nurse, and in 2009 implemented HUMCs first palliative program. The cycle of the 3 Is (Imagine, Innovate, Implement) has been a consistent interest and a professional sustainability plan. I am grounded in person focused clinical care, mentoring my interprofessional team, and implementing specialty, high-quality palliative care.

Challenge: In an acute care setting, catalyze the right care, for the right patient, at the right time, while maintaining service line stewardship.

In effort to ease the noted challenge, a highly specialized interprofessional workgroup and I created the AI program Serious Illness Continuum Connect (SICC). SICC is a predictive and prescriptive machine learning model estimating 6-month mortality paired with situational awareness via nudges and EHR infographic strategies to front-line interprofessional clinicians. SICC was created to link human-centered technology principles to evidence-based generalist and specialty interventions such as advanced care planning conversations, specialty palliative consults, and hospice referral for education.

The SICC research project is complete. We are now focused on streamlining SICC into the health system.

I am proud of being the designated palliative specialist in the HUMC ALS clinic within the Neuroscience Institute. I am embedded in the clinic and see all the motor neuron patients. The relationships I have with my patients, their family, and caregivers is particularly unique and very meaningful to me.

I am also proud of keeping myself updated with palliative knowledge and maintaining expertise. I depict the skillset of adapting to challenges and implement a balanced solution focused mindset. I am in engaged with local, national, and global palliative care constructs and look forward to contributing to them in the future.

I am married, 3 daughters, and a golden retriever. I enjoy being their companion; supporting their activities, watching them learn from life, sing silly songs, journal with them, and have "Meat Sundays" together. I have family that is local and lucky to have chosen family in my life. I love to travel and experience new things.

Outside of work I contribute to CAPC, NJ Palliative Care APN Consortium, GOCCNJ, and I have recently become involved with global palliative organizations.