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.

Outcomes: During the first 9 months of its release, more than 170 nursing programs have accessed the ELNEC Graduate curriculum, and there have been more than 200 student completions.

Conclusion: Primary palliative care education is essential for all advanced practice nursing students. The new ELNEC Graduate curriculum offers the opportunity to provide quality education remotely.