A first-of-its-kind conference landing at Cleveland State University on October 28 wants to put death doulas and hospital staff in the same room to talk about something the medical system rarely has time for: how people actually die. The LaborOUT Conference, themed “Where Healthcare Meets Deathcare,” runs from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on October 28 at 2121 Euclid Ave., mixing professional talks, workshops and networking for healthcare professionals, caregivers, educators and anyone curious about end-of-life care.
The event is organized by Kacie Gikonyo, a locally based registered nurse, death doula, educator and author who founded the Death Doula School in 2024. According to Cleveland.com, Gikonyo also wrote the book Laboring Out of Life: A Death Doula's Approach to Intentional End-of-Life Care, and the conference is called LaborOUT. A death doula, per the same reporting, is a trained practitioner who helps people at the end of life with planning, emotional support and guidance, and that support is meant to complement hospice care rather than replace it.
Why Doctors and Doulas Rarely Talk
The gap organizers are trying to close is a real one. In an August interview with Hospice News, Gikonyo said conventional medical training provides minimal education on active dying or general end-of-life care, leaving a knowledge gap between clinical treatment and non-medical support. Clinical staff often juggle tight shift rotations and heavy caseloads that leave little room for continuous bedside presence, which is part of what doulas say they're there to fill. Per Cleveland.com, Gikonyo put it plainly: death doulas add knowledge, personal care and empathy to address the gap between clinical care and compassionate support.
To pull clinicians into that conversation, organizers built in a professional incentive. Licensed healthcare professionals who attend can earn up to 7 Continuing Education Unit credits, according to information from Gikonyo's conference site, which gives registered nurses and social workers a formal reason to sit in on training that falls outside standard clinical curricula. The event is an in-person Cleveland State gathering with workshops and networking sessions.
Who's Speaking, and the Policy Backdrop
The speaker lineup includes Dr. Bob Uslander, a physician and pioneer in palliative and end-of-life care; Chelsey Ernst, a physician assistant and founder of Your Palliative PA; Mikey Marin, a death doula and reiki master; and Molly McMahon Graziano, co-founder of the Aid in Dying Collaborative. Also speaking is Lisa Vigil Schattinger, a nurse and end-of-life care advocate who founded the Beachwood-based Ohio End of Life Options in 2015 after her stepfather, neurologist Dr. Jack Rowe, used Oregon's Death with Dignity Act in 2014 following a terminal diagnosis, according to Ohio End of Life Options.
Ernst's own work speaks to a confusion the conference hopes to untangle. In a September interview reported by HeldLight, Ernst explained that palliative care can be provided alongside curative treatments at any stage of a serious illness, unlike hospice care, which requires a medical order indicating six months or less to live. That distinction matters in Ohio right now: on October 16, 2026, state Representative Eric Synenberg introduced the Ohio Medical Aid in Dying Act, proposed legislation that had not yet received a number and was awaiting one and a committee assignment, which would let terminally ill, mentally competent adult Ohio residents with a six-month prognosis request self-administered aid-in-dying medication, according to the Ohio House of Representatives. Medical aid in dying is currently authorized in 13 states and Washington, D.C., but remains under debate in Ohio.
A Fast-Growing but Unfunded Field
The conference arrives amid a broader surge in interest in death doula work nationally. Membership in the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance grew from roughly 260 members in 2019 to more than 1,600 by 2024, a fivefold increase spanning all 50 states, per US Funerals Online. Globally, the International End of Life Doula Association reports certifying roughly 8,000 doulas, and academic research evaluating end-of-life doula care is expanding at nearly 10% annually as of this year, the outlet reports.
That growth hasn't come with funding to match. Unlike Medicare-reimbursed hospice care, end-of-life doula services are generally not covered by private health insurance or Medicare and must be paid out-of-pocket by patients or families, US Funerals Online notes, even as hospice funding covers clinical visits and medical equipment but not prolonged non-medical bedside companionship. Since founding the Death Doula School in 2024, Gikonyo has offered international training through the school, aiming to build structured training for a field still working out its place alongside traditional medicine.
Tickets for the October 28 conference are on sale at deathdoulakacie.com/laborout, with organizers framing the day as an attempt to demystify the dying process and foster collaboration between healthcare professionals and death doulas, according to Cleveland.com's reporting on the event.
