The primary aim of this proposal is to improve end of life care for patients through the preparation of nurses in graduate programs. Recent national initiatives and major consensus documents have provided strong evidence of the need for improved professional education to impact end of life care. The National Cancer Policy Board and Institute of Medicine's report of improved end of life care published in 2001 has documented the considerable need for improved end of life care for more than 550,000 individuals who will die of cancer this year in the United States. This primary aim will be achieved through 4 workshops for faculty teaching in graduate nursing education programs. Each conference will be attended by 60 faculty for a total of 240 participants representing their 240 graduate programs thus directly reaching 63% of the nation's graduate nursing education programs and later reaching the remaining 37% through the dissemination efforts. The project combines the efforts of the City of Hope National Medical Center, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, and Northwest Memorial Hospital/ Lurie Cancer Center.
Specific aims i nclude: 1) Adapt the existing ELNEC curriculum and teaching materials for use in graduate nursing, with emphasis on cancer care at the EOL. 2) Evaluate the impact of the curriculum on participants' knowledge and attitudes about EOL care. 3) Develop a network of course participants to share experiences in dissemination of the curriculum. 4) Evaluate the effectiveness of participants' implementation efforts within the graduate curricula. 5) Describe issues related to dissemination of EOL education within the curriculum of graduate colleges of nursing in terms of the characteristics of the course participants and type of curriculum. This project focused on graduate education builds upon the extremely successful project in progress, End of Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC), supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation which has targeted undergraduate nursing programs and continuing education providers. The 9 content areas of the curriculum are nursing care at EOL, pain management, symptom management, ethical issues, culture, communication, grief/loss and bereavement, achieving quality care at EOL, and preparation and care at the time of death. This proposal includes extensive evaluation planned to monitor individual and institutional dissemination.
