• In the Spring of 1996, the Nevada Office of the Attorney General assembled a task force composed of various members including professionals from the state's legal and medical communities, the faith community, healthcare providers, associations, state agencies and our citizens.
• 15 objectives and goals were developed by this task force and written as recommendations in the action plan, "Death with Dignity & Caring in Nevada," published in January 1997.
• In January 1999, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded a grant entitled "Community-State Partnerships to Improve End-of-Life Care" to the Sanford Center for Aging and the Department of Health Ecology, University of Nevada, Reno, under the leadership of the Nevada Office of the Attorney General.
• The grant established the Nevada Center for Ethics and Health Policy as a statewide collaboration for the promotion of ethical and appropriate health care.
• Through the collaborative efforts among the Nevada State Medical Association, the University of Nevada School of Medicine, Board of Medical Examiners, UNLV and UNR Schools of Nursing, Sanford Center for Aging, HealthInsight, Ioannis A. Lougaris V.A. Medical Center, Hospice Association of Nevada, State of Nevada, Division of Aging Services, Circle of Life Hospice, St. Mary's Hospice of Northern Nevada, Washoe Medical Center, St. Mary's Regional Medical Center, Nathan Adelson Hospice and Palliative Care Institute, VistaCare Hospice, KNBP Channel 5, and many other organizations are working together to improve end-of-life care for all Nevadans.
• Since its inception, the Nevada Center for Ethics & Health Policy has sponsored many conferences and programs to community members and professionals on end-of-life care issues.
• The Nevada Center for Ethics & Health Policy with its partners are working together to provide better tools for community and professionals to have caring conversations about death and dying, achieve some consensus on pain management and palliative care while improving the quality of end-of-life care for a more dignified death.
• In 2001, The Nevada State Legislature approved funding for The Nevada Center for Ethics & Health Policy. With State Senator William Raggio’s support, the Center was awarded $746,700 for a two-year period that began in July of 2001.
• In December of 2001, NCEHP hired a Program Manager in Las Vegas. We are currently in the process of opening an office there.
• In the beginning of 2002, NCEHP hired an Assistant Director for the Las Vegas/Southern Nevada office and hosted 2 ethics programs with Ira Byock, MD in Las Vegas.
• In 2003, the Ethics Minor under the Health Care Ethics Program was approved. The SAGE (Scholars in AGing & Ethics) Consortium was formed to address aging and ethics issues both locally and nationally.
• In 2004, our first Ethics Minor student completed the program and graduated with a degree in Health Ecology. Also during this year, the UCCSN Board of Regents approved the Graduate Certificate of Bioethics under the Health Care Ethics Program. This is housed at the School of Public Health and administered by NCEHP. While the NCEHP's Multicultural Education Coordinator in southern Nevada made significant strides in the center's outreach among Las Vegas's ethnic minority communities, the Project and Research Coordinator at the University of Nevada, Reno, paved the way for expansion of the center's applied research in ethics and humanities.