The Role of a Nurse Specialist in Palliative Care: An Israeli Experience.

Given the severe shortage of physicians in Israel, the Ministry of Health issued a decree that offered advanced authority and responsibilities to experienced nurses; thus, the status of the nurse specialist (NS) was created. The role of NS in Israel is truly varied, incorporating many different facets that range from stabilizing to changing the existing palliative care (PC) orders, including those involving dosages and methods of care provision, issuing of repeat prescriptions, suspending drug treatment, and prescribing new drugs for a patient according to a protocol issued by a physician. The NS is also authorized to perform many clinical duties that frequently involve direct patient care.

The relationship of sleep disturbance and symptom severity, symptom interference, and hospitalization among Israeli inpatients with cancer.

Purpose/objectives: To examine the relationship of sleep disturbance and symptom severity, symptom interference, and hospitalization among inpatients with cancer.

Design: A descriptive, correlational, comparative design.

Setting: The oncology inpatient unit of a teaching hospital.