Palliative
Care
Educational Programs
Nursing Education
Palliative care and end-of-life content are integrated throughout
the undergraduate and graduate nursing curricula in clinical, ethical,
policy, and theory coursework. In addition, the School
of Nursing offers a hospice and palliative care elective. Students have the
opportunity to interact with members of the palliative care team,
attend palliative care rounds, and investigate palliative care
and hospice care as delivered at home and in institutional settings.
The School of Nursing core curriculum on end-of-life (EOL) care focuses
on the following content modules:
- Nursing Care at the End of Life
Overview of death and dying in America, principals and goals of
hospice and palliative care, dimensions of and barriers to
quality care at EOL, concepts of suffering and healing, role
of the nurse in EOL care.
- Pain Management
Definitions of pain, current status of and
barriers to pain relief, components of pain assessment, specific
pharmacological, and non-pharmacological therapies including
concerns for special populations.
- Symptom Management
Detailed overview of symptoms commonly experienced at the EOL,
and for each, the cause, impact on quality of life, assessment,
and pharmacological/non-pharmacological management.
- Ethical/Legal Issues
Recognizing and responding to ethical dilemmas in EOL care including
issues of comfort, consent, prolonging life, withholding treatment;
euthanasia, and allocation of resources; and legal issues
including advance care planning; advance directives, and decision
making at EOL.
- Cultural Considerations in End-of-Life Care
Multiple aspects of culture and belief systems, components of
cultural assessment with emphasis on patient/family beliefs
about roles, death and dying, afterlife, and bereavement.
- Communication
Essentials of communication at EOL, attentive listening, barriers
to communication, breaking bad news, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
- Grief, Loss, Bereavement
Stages and types of grief, grief assessment and intervention,
and the nurse's experience with loss/grief and need for support.
- Achieving Quality Care at the End of Life
Challenge for nursing in EOL care, availability and cost of EOL
care, the nurses' role in improving care systems, opportunities
for growth at EOL, concepts of peaceful or "good death", "dying
well", and dignity.
- Preparation and Care for the Time of Death
Nursing care at the time of death including physical, psychological,
and spiritual care of the patient, support of family members,
the death vigil, recognizing death, and care after death.
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