My name is Paul Hacker. Since 2010, I have been a community-based palliative care physician in Ottawa, Canada. This means that I provide palliative care services in patients’ homes or in a residential hospice.

Prior to this, I worked as a hospitalist in Ottawa from 2006-2010 and as a general practitioner, anesthetist and hospitalist in Lindsay, Ontario from 1994-2006. My first five years of practice prior to this were spent working in a small community emergency department, training as a GP-anesthetist and working in Leamington, Ontario as a GP and anesthetist.

Through the various settings and types of work that I have done, the one constant has always been a prime focus on the patient as a person, helping patients and families find their way through illness and recovery, and helping ensure that everyone in the patient’s circle understands the current issues and likely future prognosis.

Doing this work provides me with the opportunity to meet and get to know people in their most vulnerable time, and help to guide them through a period that our society otherwise prefers not to address or acknowledge. The work allows me to care not only for my patient but for the circle of family and loved ones that surround them. By supporting this circle, my hope is that the events leading up to someone’s death are made less mysterious, more comfortable and easier for patients and their caregivers to understand. For caregivers, the knowledge that they provided great care and were there to support their loved one is a gift that helps them in the coming period of bereavement and beyond.

I have been fortunate to work alongside amazing visiting nurses, PSWs and other healthcare professionals. I am especially fortunate to have been trusted to lead our community palliative care group, Community Palliative Medicine Associates, since 2014.