Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Improving Palliative Care Knowledge In The Acute Care Setting, Laura C. Brumett

MSN Capstone Projects

Aim: The aim of this paper is to present an education intervention for bedside nursing staff to improve their palliative care knowledge and the end-of-life care provided for terminally ill patients.

Background: When dying in the hospital, patients experience higher discomfort, lower quality of life, and prolonged family grieving. Suffering worsens when patient needs are unmet and can contribute to a traumatic death. Providing end-of-life education will increase a nurse’s knowledge of palliative care, address knowledge gaps, and promote better patient outcomes through improved clinical practice.

Design: The proposed intervention has three prongs which include: (1) virtual training using the …

Palliative Care And Quality Of Life Improvement: A Benchmark Study, Rebecca Daniels

MSN Capstone Projects

This project provides an overview of the standard and regular implementation of palliative care versus early implementation of palliative care in patients with chronic or terminal illnesses. Palliative care is an essential component of healthcare that focuses on improving the quality of life and providing support to patients through holistic elements to patients and their families facing chronic and terminal illnesses. With evidence-based research, many articles have been published with implementation of early palliative care showing improvement in patient and even caregiver quality of life. This project includes evidence gathered from mixed methods of systematic review of existing literature, randomized …

Palliative Care In The Icu, Grace Cunningham

MSN Capstone Projects

Death and dying is an evident part of being admitted to the intensive care unit. However, too many times, the end-of-life conversations and palliative care team introduction are done when it is too late. The PICOT question is “In ICU patients (P), how does early palliative care involvement in the death and dying process (I) compared to later palliative care involvement in the death and dying process (C) affect positive patient outcomes (O) within the ICU hospital stay (T)?” The objective of this change project is to instill a sense of urgency in providing palliative consults upon admission as this …

Nurse Practitioner Intervention In Palliative Care Settings, Lacie N. Harris

MSN Capstone Projects

Palliative care is a specialty of healthcare that focuses on chronic and severe disease. As chronic disease continues to rise annually related to genetics, sedentary lifestyle, and environmental factors, the need for interventions will increase to meet demands of patients, families, and organizations. Therefore, implementation of a nurse practitioner in the palliative care setting is ideal for optimal patient outcomes.

Early Initiation Of Palliative Care, Ann R. Phillips

MSN Capstone Projects

The overall aim of this project, based upon the best available evidence, clinical experience of oncology nurses, and patient preferences for information about palliative care, is to propose the creation and initiation of a protocol which empowers oncology/palliative care nurses to be able to initiate early discussions about palliative care for patients with advanced stage cancer (III-IV) diagnoses.

By having frank conversations surrounding palliative care early on in the treatment process, patients are better able to make informed decisions about treatment, depending on the trajectory their disease takes. Such conversations provide patients with a clearer picture of what is likely …

Hospital-Based Palliative Care Programs: Perspectives Regarding Conceptualization And Accreditation, Karen L. Walker

Nursing Theses and Dissertations

Palliative care has been shown to improve symptoms and increase quality of life in people with a life-limiting illness. Despite growth in hospital-based palliative care programs throughout the United States, only 91 hospitals have obtained The Joint Commission’s Advanced Palliative Certification. The purpose of this descriptive study was to identify how programs that do not have The Joint Commission’s Advanced Palliative Care Certification defined and conceptualized palliative care. An additional focus was to identify the barriers these programs perceived or experienced that prevented them from obtaining the advanced palliative care certification. This research program began with an evolutionary concept analysis …

Perinatal Palliative Care: Assessment Of Practice Barriers, Clinician Perspectives And Confidence, Charlotte Wool

Nursing Theses and Dissertations

Perinatal palliative care (PPC) is an emerging model of care that provides supportive services to families anticipating fetal or neonatal demise. Clinician reported practice barriers, their perspectives of PPC and confidence in caring for patients requiring PPC are unknown. The aim of this research is to fill a gap in understanding clinician perspectives, perceived practice barriers and reported confidence to providing PPC. A cross sectional survey design using the Perinatal Palliative Care Perceptions and Barriers Scale© was administered using a Web-based tool. Recruitment was completed via email invitation and list serves. Participants included physicians (n = 66) and advance practice …