The Challenges of Advance Care Planning for Acute Care Registered Nurses.

Study Background: The practice of acute care nurses is shaped by organizational factors such as lack of privacy, heavy workloads, unclear roles, lack of time, and lack of specific policies and procedures. We know little about the social and organizational structures and processes that influence nurses' uptake of valuable patient-centered discussions like advance care planning (ACP). ACP is beneficial for patients, their substitute decision makers, and healthcare providers.

Helping the helpers: Understanding information and support needs of caregivers in underserved communities.

Informal caregivers caring for patients at the end of life in rural geographic areas may have inadequate support due to insufficient community-based palliative care services. We conducted a parallel mixed-methods study to understand informal caregivers' unmet supportive, educational, and informational needs living in rural areas with limited community-based palliative care services. Forty-four caregivers of loved ones that died at home between December 2017 and September 2020 completed the Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool (CSNAT) and 14 caregivers were interviewed.

Evaluating an Initiative to Promote Entry-Level Competence in Palliative and End-of-Life Care for Registered Nurses in Canada.

Numerous competency statements have been developed for the purpose of guiding nurse educators and clinicians. Rarely, though, are there evaluations of the use of these competency statements in practice. In this cross-sectional descriptive study, nurse educators were surveyed to determine how the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN) Palliative and End-of-Life Care Entry-to-Practice Competencies and Indicators are used in schools of nursing in Canada.

Identifying the Factors Associated With Canadian Registered Nurses' Engagement in Advance Care Planning.

Advance care planning (ACP) is a series of discussions in which patient values and wishes for end-of-life care are made known. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which registered nurses (RNs) engaged in ACP with their patients and understand the factors associated with this practice decision in Canada. One hundred twenty-five RNs participated in this cross-sectional descriptive survey.

Development of Nurse Practitioner Competencies for Advance Care Planning.

This article describes the development of nurse practitioner (NP) competencies for advance care planning. Nurse practitioners are well positioned to implement advance care planning with their patients; however, very few patients have an advance care plan. A modified Delphi method was used to engage NPs in achieving consensus for advance care planning competencies.

Exploring Self-Perceptions of Anxiety among Nursing Students in the Clinical Setting and Select Demographics.

Clinical learning experiences are essential in nursing education but they are often anxiety provoking for learners. Understanding the factors associated with the anxiety levels of nursing students in clinical placements has become more complex over the years with increasing heterogeneity within the nursing population. A correlational study was conducted to examine the relationships between nursing students' self-perceived anxiety levels, as measured by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and the students' age, gender, previous employment, and previous education.

Advance Care Planning in Nurse Practitioner Practice: A Cross-Sectional Descriptive Study.

It is estimated that the number of people who die of life-limiting illnesses in Canada will double by the year 2056. Advance care planning (ACP) is one way to improve the quality of end-of-life care. ACP is a process of ongoing discussions whereby a person communicates important values and desired outcomes at the end of life prior to healthcare crises.

Registered nurses' involvement in advance care planning: an integrative review.

Background: Even though registered nurses are uniquely positioned to have end-of-life conversations with their patients, there is limited engagement in such discussions between patients and health-care providers. Consequently, few patients are adequately prepared to make in-the-moment treatment decisions about goals of care.

Objectives: The guiding question for this integrative review was what factors influence registered nurses' involvement in advance care planning (ACP) conversations with their patients in acute care settings?

Methods: Based on integrative review guidelines, databases from CINAHL, Medline, Ovid, and ProQuest were searched from 1990-2014, yielding nine articles.

A description of a process to calibrate the Morse fall scale in a long-term care home.

The purpose of this article is to describe the process of calibrating the Morse Fall Scale in a Canadian long-term care home as one aspect of a complex fall prevention program. The authors propose that the implementation of a calibration process of a fall risk assessment tool enables care providers to identify residents at greatest risk for falling. The authors further suggest that the ability to identify those residents most likely to experience a fall facilitates tailoring of fall prevention strategies for these individuals at greatest risk.