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Full-Text Articles in Palliative Nursing
Optimizing Advance Care Planning: Leveraging An Electronic Medical Record Prompt To Impact Advance Directive Documentation, Annette L. Meares
Optimizing Advance Care Planning: Leveraging An Electronic Medical Record Prompt To Impact Advance Directive Documentation, Annette L. Meares
Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects
Abstract
Background: Advance Directives (ADs) support patient-centered care by documenting preferences for future medical treatment. While the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) incentivizes AD documentation through billing codes, national adoption remains low.
Local Problem: A rural Northern Illinois primary care practice had electronic referral capabilities for ACP; however, referrals remained low and inconsistent during Medicare Annual Wellness Visits (AWVs), limiting opportunities for AD completion.
Methods: This quality improvement project targeted Medicare AWV patients without ADs documented in the electronic medical record (EMR). During a 10-week pre-intervention period, baseline data were collected. In the subsequent 10-week intervention phase, an …
Implementation Of The Nurse-Driven Palliative Care Referral Protocol: A Quality Improvement Project, Khrystyna Lacombe
Implementation Of The Nurse-Driven Palliative Care Referral Protocol: A Quality Improvement Project, Khrystyna Lacombe
Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects
Implementation of the Nurse-Driven Palliative Care Referral Protocol
Background and Purpose: Palliative care enhances quality of life, symptom management, and patient–family communication for individuals with serious illness. Despite strong evidence and national recommendations for early integration, referrals remain inconsistent and often occur late. At Advocate Sherman Hospital, only 17.9% of eligible oncology inpatients received palliative care consults. The absence of standardized referral criteria, reliance on provider discretion, and misconceptions equating palliative care with hospice contributed to delayed or missed consults. The purpose of this quality improvement (QI) project was to increase palliative care referrals by 20% within eight weeks through …
Improving Utilization Of Nonpharmacological Interventions In Adult Oncology Patients, Alison Keck
Improving Utilization Of Nonpharmacological Interventions In Adult Oncology Patients, Alison Keck
Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects
Background: Anxiety is one of the most prevalent symptoms oncology patients experience and clinical guidelines support the use of nonpharmacological interventions (NPI) as a primary method for managing anxiety.
Local Problem: At a suburban, community hospital, a nurse perception survey revealed staff were “always” offering medications 69% of the time but NPIs were “never” used anywhere between 38-81% of the time. In a sampling of patients, only 33% recalled they had used NPIs. A Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) tool revealed that 69% of patients had higher than average levels of anxiety on the unit.
Methods: This quality …