Preparation and care at the time of death: content of the ELNEC curriculum and teaching strategies.

Nurses are exposed to death across the lifespan ranging from stillbirths to neonatal deaths to deaths of children, adolescents, or adults from trauma or various acute or chronic illnesses. To provide quality care at the end of life, nurses must not only possess the knowledge and skills to provide effective end-of-life care, but must also develop the attitudes and interpersonal competence to provide compassionate care. The purpose of this article is to present the key content and teaching strategies related to preparation and care at the time of death based on the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) curriculum.

Teaching symptom management in end-of-life care: the didactic content and teaching strategies based on the end-of-life nursing education curriculum.

Relief of symptoms for patients and families throughout the illness trajectory requires that palliative care practitioners have knowledge and skill, both in assessment and use of pharmacologic and complementary therapies. This article presents the didactic content of symptom assessment and management, and the experiential experiences used in a nondrug laboratory within the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) curriculum.

Learning pain assessment and management: a goal of the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium.

Background: Relief of pain for patients requires that palliative care practitioners have knowledge and skill in both pain assessment and the use of pharmacologic and complementary therapies.

Method: Pain assessment and management and the teaching strategies suggested within the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium curriculum are presented.

Results: By addressing the pain experienced by patients with life-limiting illnesses and those at the end of life, the quality of care can be greatly improved.

Ethical and legal issues in end-of-life care: content of the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium curriculum and teaching strategies.

The End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) is a train-the-trainer educational program to help nursing faculty integrate care of dying patients and their families in the nursing curriculum. This article presents techniques derived from the ELNEC project regarding teaching the ethics module and the key content areas for developing ethical decision-making skills in end-of-life care. Competent end-of-life nursing care begins with an understanding of ethics and the potential affect on care of dying patients and their families.

The end-of-life nursing education consortium (ELNEC) experience.

The End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) is a train-the-trainer educational program to help nursing faculty integrate care of the dying patient and the patient's family in the nursing curriculum. The authors describe the ELNEC experience, which prepares nurse educators to competently teach end-of-life care, and provides them with the necessary knowledge, skills, and resources to effectively integrate end-of-life content into existing nursing curricula.

Communication skills for end-of-life nursing care. Teaching strategies from the ELNEC curriculum.

The End of Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) is a train-the-trainer educational program that helps nursing faculty integrate care of the dying patient and the patient's family into the nursing curriculum. This article presents pedagogical techniques derived from the ELNEC teaching module on communication and key content areas for developing communication skills in end-of-life care. Competent end-of-life nursing care begins with an understanding of communication techniques and their potential impact on care.

Strategies for teaching loss, grief, and bereavement.

Teaching loss, grief, and bereavement to nursing students should be an interactive process to stimulate critical thinking and address the affective domain of learning. Lecture as a teaching methodology may be the easiest to prepare and deliver; however, used alone, it is ineffective in identifying perceptions, fears, and issues related to dying and death. Personal and professional experiences of loss, grief, and bereavement are central to student's learning of effective and compassionate care of the dying patient and their family.

Critique of transcultural practices in end-of-life clinical nursing practice.

Topic: Transcultural nursing practices for terminally ill patients.

Purpose: To examine several criticisms of transcultural nursing theory in end-of-life care.

Sources: Published literature and interviews with nurses.

Teaching cultural considerations at the end of life: end of life nursing education consortium program recommendations.

Background: The End of Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) is an end of life care nursing education program that addresses the many dimensions of culture, including ethnic identity, gender, age, differing abilities, sexual orientation, and religion and spirituality. This article focuses on one of the program's modules entitled "Cultural Considerations in End of Life Care."

Method: The ELNEC "Cultural Considerations in End of Life Care" module, which identifies important cultural considerations as well as strategies and responses to teach cultural competence and sensitivity in undergraduate nursing curriculum, is described.

Achieving quality care at the end of life: a focus of the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) curriculum.

This article introduces the didactic content and teaching strategies presented in the End of Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) curriculum on the topic of "Achieving Quality Care at the End of Life." The American Association of Colleges of Nursing joined forces with the City of Hope National Medical Center to begin a national education initiative, entitled the, "End of Life Nursing Education Consortium" (ELNEC) (available: http://www.aacn.