So excited to announce the South Carolina Hospice and Palliative Care Conference for 2026. We are delighted to present the Third Annual Hospice and Palliative Care conference in beautiful Columbia, South Carolina on Friday, March 27th, 2026. This day-long, in-person conference will highlight the strengths of the Interdisciplinary Team, the backbone of providing high-quality Hospice and Palliative Care.
The Annual Conference goals and objectives are:
- To highlight non-physician members of the interdisciplinary team
- To describe best practices in interdisciplinary hospice and palliative care
- To present innovations in symptom management
- To advance principles of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion as they relate to the care of our patients
Announcing our Keynote Speakers:
Sunita Puri, MD
Dr. Sunita Puri is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, where she is the Director of the Inpatient Palliative Care Service. A 2025 Literature Fellow of the Bogliasco Foundation, she is the author of That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour, a critically acclaimed literary memoir examining her journey to the practice of palliative medicine, and her quest to help patients and families redefine what it means to live and die well in the face of serious illness. A graduate of Yale University and the recipient of a Rhodes Scholarship, her writing has appeared in the New Yorker, Atlantic, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Tricycle, Slate, Wall Street Journal, and the Journal of the American Medical Association, among other places. She and her work have been featured in the Atlantic, People Magazine, PBS’ Christian Amanpour Show, NPR, the Guardian, BBC, India Today, and Literary Hub. In 2019, the Guardian made a mini-documentary of her work with her patients, which has been viewed over 3.5 million times. She has been awarded writing residencies at the Bogliasco Foundation, MacDowell, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, Mesa Refuge, and UCross. A sought-after speaker who has delivered lectures around the world, Dr. Puri is passionate about the ways that the precise and compassionate use of language can empower patients and physicians to have the right conversations about living and dying. You can follow her on IG and Twitter: @sunitapurimd
Peter Abraham, BSN, RN
Peter Abraham, BSN, RN, is a compassionate hospice nurse, certified end-of-life doula, and life transition coach who walks alongside nurses, caregivers, families, and patients during life’s most challenging moments. With experience in cardiology, medical-surgical, and long-term care, he has led teams in rehab, rural hospice, and palliative care as a case manager and admissions nurse.
Through Compassion Crossing, Peter provides hands-on support including advance care planning, hospice and palliative care guidance, legacy projects with photography and videography, medication reviews, and vigil planning. He offers both on-site visits in Madison County, Kentucky, and virtual support nationwide. His mission is transforming fear into peace through education and compassionate presence. Rooted in his faith in Christ Jesus, Peter brings hope during difficult transitions.
Outside work, he enjoys time with his wife, Laura and their two rescue dogs in central Kentucky.
Dr. Abigail Nathanson, LCSW, APHSW-C, ACS
Dr. Abigail Nathanson (she/her) is an experienced trauma therapist and nationally recognized palliative care educator with nearly two decades of experience working with people who are seriously ill or dying, their caregivers, and the professionals who care for them. She has practiced in hospice, palliative care, skilled nursing, acute care hospitals, and community non-profits, serving both on the front lines and in program development and leadership roles. Board certified in Palliative and Hospice Social Work and an Approved Clinical Supervisor, she brings deep clinical experience to her teaching and writing on topics such as bereavement, death anxiety, caregiving, and coping with serious illness.
Dr. Nathanson teaches Grief, Loss and Bereavement at New York University, where she earned both her master’s and doctorate in social work and continues to serve as part-time faculty. She helped create NYU’s Advanced Clinical Seminars in Grief and Trauma program, which brings together national leaders in trauma and healthcare to teach at the intersection of these often siloed fields—a particular focus of her work. She is the co-editor of The Practice of Clinical Social Work in Healthcare (Springer Press) and a contributing author to The Oxford Textbook of Palliative Social Work and The Oxford Textbook of Palliative Oncology Social Work. A 2022 Educator of the Year awardee from the Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network, she has given nearly a hundred presentations at leading institutions including Memorial Sloan Kettering, Georgetown University Medical Center, Cedars-Sinai, Columbia University Medical Center, and New York Medical College, and presented at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting on provider suffering. Her advanced clinical training includes Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), EMDR, and Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy.
Beyond her academic and clinical work, Dr. Nathanson is a frequent national presenter and consultant, offering workshops and trainings on trauma-informed care, grief, and demoralization in serious illness. Recent speaking engagements include the Association for Death Education and Counseling, the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Foundation, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Fordham University’s Annual Aging Conference. She has been featured or quoted as an expert in The New York Times, NPR’s Weekend Edition, Vox, Reader’s Digest, HuffPost, Bloggingheads and Discover Magazine. Dr. Nathanson currently leads a group therapy practice in New York, focusing on trauma therapy for those impacted by medical illness, loss, and caregiving.
Accreditation Statement: The University of South Carolina School of Medicine – Prisma Health–Midlands Continuing Medical Education Organization is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.