Palliative care for children: preparing undergraduate nursing students.

Children with life-threatening illnesses rarely benefit from palliative services. Because nurses spend more time with dying children than any other healthcare professional does, it is essential that they are prepared to address the complicated physical, psychological, legal, ethical, and spiritual issues associated with terminal illness and death. The authors discuss a course that provides students with the knowledge, skills, and attitude needed to provide comprehensive care for pediatric patients and their families.

Nursing management of hearing impairment in nursing facility residents.

This article has described the key points in the evidence-based practice guideline entitled Nursing Management of Hearing Impairment in Nursing Facility Residents. The guideline outlining the nursing management of nursing facility residents with hearing impairment is supported by 175 articles: 94 research articles (both experimental and descriptive) and 81 nonresearch articles (expert opinion). The full guideline includes the significance of hearing impairment, key definitions, individuals at risk, assessment criteria and tools, description of practice, and steps for evaluation and outcomes.

Budgeting nursing workload for required minimum data set assessments.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of an instrument used to measure nursing workload of federally mandated assessments. Specifically, the instrument measures the nursing workload of the resident assessment instrument the mandated assessment tool used in nursing facilities.

Background: It is imperative that nursing managers and nurse executives in health care organizations have a process to budget Registered Nurse full-time equivalents required for federally mandated assessments.

Achieving excellence in end-of-life care.

Nurses in practice have verified the need for nursing education curricula to include content related to care of the dying patient. Nurse educators are initiating curricular changes to assure students have the knowledge and attitudes needed to provide quality care at the end of life. The authors discuss one university undergraduate program's development of both a theory and practicum course.