Palliative Care Education in Nurse Practitioner Programs: A Survey of Academic Deans.

The need for clinicians trained in palliative care will increase as more Americans live with life-limiting illness. Although multiple studies have described the nature of palliative care education in prelicensure programs, there have been no similar studies of nurse practitioner programs. We surveyed 101 nurse practitioner programs. Most programs provide little instruction in palliative care; education is often limited to a few hours of lecture. One-third of programs offer no instruction. Although palliative care is an important component of advanced practice nursing practice, programs may not be providing adequate education.