Congress Abstracts 2004

48

END OF LIFE (EOL) EDUCATION FOR GRADUATE NURSE EDUCATORS. Judith Paice, PhD, RN, FAAN, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL; Rose Virani, RN, MHA, Betty R. Ferrell, PhD, FAAN, and Marcia Grant, DNSc, FAAN, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA; Pam Malloy, RN, MN, OCN^®, AACN, George Washington University Hospital, Washington, DC; and Anne Rhome MPH, RN, AACN, Washington, DC.

Despite the release of several prominent reports emphasizing the need for excellent palliative care, the majority of those dying from cancer encounter under treatment of physical and emotional symptoms. Advanced practice nurses (APNs) who are well prepared to treat these symptoms can be highly influential in providing excellent clinical care; educating professionals, patients, families, and the public; conducting quality improvement efforts to improve practice; and researching pertinent questions to advance the science of palliative care.

The Graduate End of Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) addresses the preparation of APNs by providing graduate nursing faculty with the knowledge and tools to enhance end-of-life (EOL) information in their curricula.

The National Cancer Institute (2002–2007) funds this collaborative effort between the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) and the City of Hope Cancer Center (COH). The Graduate ELNEC curriculum, based on the AACN “Peaceful Death” document, includes nine EOL core areas with detailed teaching materials to integrate this content into graduate nursing curricula and clinical practice. The first national training course, held in June 2003, was attended by 60 graduate nursing faculty members from 35 states and the District of Columbia.

The participants rated the overall course highly (x = 4.8; scale of 1 = lowest rating, to 5 = highest rating). In pre-course surveys, the participants perceived that EOL care is very important to graduate nursing education (x = 9; scale of 1 = not important, to 10 = very important) and that their own faculty is very receptive to increasing EOL content in the curriculum (x = 8.5). However, efforts at including EOL care in the graduate curricula were only moderately effective (x = 4.4). This presentation will describe the development of Graduate ELNEC and will provide additional evaluation data derived from the course evaluations, pre-assessment surveys compared with follow-up after the course, and participant goals conducted pre-course, immediate post-course, and at various intervals post course.

This national effort is a significant measure toward increasing EOL care in graduate nursing curricula, thereby preparing APNs to improve care of the dying.