Integration of Palliative Care in the Role of the Oncology Advanced Practice Nurse.

Numerous organizations have cited the increasing demand for palliative care in oncology and the challenge of a limited workforce to deliver specialty palliative care. Advanced practitioners in oncology can provide generalist or primary palliative care to complement the care provided by specialists and enhance the overall provision of care. This article reports on a National Cancer Institute-funded training program to prepare advanced practice nurses to incorporate palliative care within their practice.

Preparing Advanced Practice Registered Nursing Students to Provide Primary Palliative Care.

Background: Advanced practice registered nursing students need primary palliative care education to care for the growing number of patients with serious illness and their families and to fill the serious resource gaps in specialty palliative care.

Problem: There has been a lack of primary palliative care education in most graduate nursing programs and little direction as to competencies and essential content.

Approach: In an effort to support faculty to teach palliative care content, the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) has created an online curriculum that meets the new American Association of Colleges of Nursing Graduate-Competencies and Recommendations for Educating Nursing Students in primary palliative care for master's degree and doctor of nursing practice students.

Preparing New Graduate RNs to Provide Primary Palliative Care.

Background: More than 90 million Americans are struggling to live with serious illness and are in need of palliative and end-of-life care. Yet, many novice RNs have not been adequately prepared during their undergraduate programs to care for them.

Method: A large southwestern Magnet comprehensive cancer center piloted integrating the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC)-Undergraduate Curriculum into their nurse residency program during 2018 with 55 new RNs.

Preparing Oncology Advanced Practice RNs as Generalists in Palliative Care.

Objectives: To train and support oncology advanced practice RNs (APRNs) to become generalist providers of palliative care.

Sample & Setting: APRNs with master's or doctor of nursing practice degrees and at least five years of experience in oncology (N = 165) attended a National Cancer Institute-funded national training course and participated in ongoing support and education.

Methods & Variables: Course participants completed a precourse, postcourse, and six-month follow-up evaluation regarding palliative care practices in their settings, course evaluation, and their perceived effectiveness in applying course content in their practice.

End-of-Life Nursing and Education Consortium Communication Curriculum for Nurses.

Nurses have unique clinical responsibilities and opportunities with patients that require strong communication skills. However, many nurses lack effective communication skills and often receive inadequate palliative care communication training and education. To promote communication education for palliative care nurses, the End-of-Life Nursing and Education Consortium created a Communication Curriculum for nurses and developed an in-person train-the-trainer course.

A Framework for Integrating Oncology Palliative Care in Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Education.

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) faculty play a critical role in preparing students to meet the complex needs of the nation as the number of cancer rates and survivors rise (National Cancer Institute, 2018) and as an unprecedented number of older Americans enter into the healthcare system with complicated comorbidities (Whitehead, 2016). Palliative care has dramatically expanded over the past decade and has been increasingly accepted as a standard of care for people with cancer and other serious, chronic, or life-limiting illnesses. Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) are recognized as important providers of palliative care (Walling et al.

An Innovative End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium Curriculum That Prepares Nursing Students to Provide Primary Palliative Care.

Research has demonstrated that patients facing serious, life-limiting illnesses and their families benefit from receiving palliative care. Increasingly, however, specialty palliative care has limited resources. Prelicensure nursing students who are educated to provide primary palliative care to patients with serious illness and at the end of life can fill that gap.

Promoting Palliative Care Internationally: Building Leaders to Promote Education, Practice, and Advocacy.

In February 2000, nine nursing educators, practitioners, and researchers met in Nashville, Tennessee, to develop a palliative care curriculum specifically for nurses. The following month, 22 advisors from nursing organizations across the United States convened in Washington, DC to review the recommended curriculum development and dissemination plans for end-of-life care throughout nursing schools, hospitals, hospices, home care, and geriatric settings. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provided funding for curriculum and competency development and for six national train-the-trainer courses to be held from 2001 to 2003.

CARES: AACN's New Competencies and Recommendations for Educating Undergraduate Nursing Students to Improve Palliative Care.

Nurses spend the most time of any health care professional caring for patients and families dealing with the challenges of serious illness. The demand for nursing expertise in palliative care is growing as more people are living with chronic, life-limiting illnesses. Nursing faculty must prepare future nurses to meet this demand.

The End of Life Nursing Education Nursing Consortium project.

In 2000, the City of Hope Medical Center and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) developed the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC)-Core curriculum to educate nurses and other healthcare professionals on end of life care, so that attention to the dying could be improved and their unique needs addressed. Since its inception, over 19,500 nurses and other professionals have attended the ELNEC train-the-trainer courses. Upon course completion, the participants, often nurse educators, returned to their schools, healthcare systems, and communities and introduced the ELNEC content into nursing curricula, annual competencies, and new employee orientation.

End-of-life care education in acute and critical care: the California ELNEC project.

Acute and critical care nurses care for an increasingly aging population in the last stages of life. Unfortunately, many of these nurses do not have adequate education to care for this population. The End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) developed a critical care course, and in 2007 the Archstone Foundation provided a grant to educate critical care nurses in California.

Expanding palliative care nursing education in California: the ELNEC Geriatric project.

In the past decade, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's 2002 report Means to a Better End: A Report on Dying in America Today and other studies brought attention to deficiencies in care of the dying in the USA. Palliative care's mandate is to promote a 'good death' through expert symptom management and compassionate care that addresses the psychosocial needs and dignity of persons at the end of life. The End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) Geriatric 'train-the-trainer' project was launched in 2007 to increase the knowledge and educational skills of nurses and unlicensed staff providing end-of-life care for older adults in nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, long-term care, and hospices.

The preparation of oncology nurses in palliative care.

Objectives: To address the opportunities for oncology nurses to prepare for and provide palliative care support to cancer patients and families.

Data Sources: A review of the literature as well as synthesis of the experiences of the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium over the past 10 years (2000-2010) were considered in summarizing implications for palliative care education in oncology.

Conclusion: Cancer patients and their families across the cancer trajectory experience serious physical and psychosocial symptoms and spiritual concerns.

Evaluation of palliative care nursing education seminars.

Purpose: More than 50 million people die each year around the world. Nurses are crucial in providing care to these individuals and their families as they spend the most time at the bedside with patients and families. Yet many nurses have received little or no education about palliative care.

Improving the quality of spiritual care as a dimension of palliative care: the report of the Consensus Conference.

A Consensus Conference sponsored by the Archstone Foundation of Long Beach, California, was held February 17-18, 2009, in Pasadena, California. The Conference was based on the belief that spiritual care is a fundamental component of quality palliative care. This document and the conference recommendations it includes builds upon prior literature, the National Consensus Project Guidelines, and the National Quality Forum Preferred Practices and Conference proceedings.

Appraisal of The Pediatric End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium training program.

Major deficiencies continue to exist in pediatric palliative and end-of-life nursing education. The End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC)-Pediatric Palliative Care (PPC) train-the-trainer curriculum was developed to create a nursing education program to improve care for children and their families confronted with life-threatening illnesses (www.aacn.

End-of-life nursing education consortium: 5 years of educating graduate nursing faculty in excellent palliative care.

Since January 2001, over 4,500 nurses, representing all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, have attended 1 of 50 national End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) train-the-trainer courses.

Statewide efforts in promoting palliative care.

Background: In 2002, Means to a Better End: A Report of Dying in America Today, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) report, was issued that included grades for each state on their ability to provide end-of-life care. Most states, including California, rated as mediocre and the report called for extensive efforts at a state level to improve the quality of palliative care.

Objective: The purpose of this paper is to describe implementation and evaluation of a comprehensive statewide effort to improve end-of-life care education for 350 California nurses as an example of state-level change as recommended by the RWJF report.

End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium. Geriatric Training Program: improving palliative care in community geriatric care settings.

Recent studies of end-of-life care in nursing homes and other long-term care settings point to a significant need to improve care. The End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC)-Geriatric Training Program is an important educational initiative to advance palliative care and end-of-life education for licensed nurses and nursing assistants. The ELNEC-Geriatric Training Program prepares nurses as educators and leaders to improve the quality of end-of-life care in geriatric care facilities.

National guidelines for palliative care: A roadmap for oncology nurses.

Patients with cancer have significant needs for palliative care, including pain and symptom management and psychosocial and spiritual support. The experience of cancer has an impact on family caregivers as well, and palliative care needs exist from diagnosis through survivorship and end-of-life care. Oncology nurses have opportunities to integrate palliative care into disease-focused care.

End-of-life nursing education consortium for pediatric palliative care (ELNEC-PPC).

Pediatric nurses must often care for children with life-threatening illness. Although the child may be a neonate with multiple organ failure, a young adolescent diagnosed with HIV, or a 7-year-old child involved in a serious bicycle accident, pediatric nurses are an essential part of the interdisciplinary team that plans, organizes, implements, and manages the care of these children and their families. To date, more than 600 pediatric nurses have attended a national End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium-Pediatric Palliative Care (ELNEC-PPC) training program.