What Every Nurse Needs to Know About Palliative Care

Palliative care is specialized care, an extra level of support, for people with serious or chronic illnesses. Appropriate from point of diagnosis onward, it focuses on relieving the symptoms and stress of a serious illness, going hand-in-hand with curative treatment and improving quality of life for both the patient and their family.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two-thirds of people aged 65 and older suffer from serious, multiple chronic conditions. The needs of this aging population create intense pressure on the healthcare system, which has led to the growth of palliative care in every care setting. This self-paced course is approximately one and a half hours in length and provides an introduction to palliative care. The course is designed to create an awareness of palliative care principles and it provides information and tools critical to nurses.

What You’ll Learn

The course walks you through a comprehensive overview of palliative care including:

• Knowledge of Palliative Care
• The Palliative Care Team
• Delivery of Care
• Settings of Care
• Communication
• Increasing timely access to quality palliative care

What You’ll Earn

• Differentiate among “usual” care, palliative care and hospice care
• Identify the role of each member of the palliative care team and the benefits of interdisciplinary care
• Describe unique elements of the palliative care delivery process
• Recognize the value of palliative care in specific care settings
• Conduct an advance care planning conversation
• Assess and identify patients who would benefit from palliative care

Get the Brochure!

In addition to the specialized care that expert palliative care nurses provide, nurses trained in generalist palliative care skills improve patient care and help organizations achieve quality benchmarks. By integrating palliative care skills into their “toolkit,” nurses are able to optimize patient quality of life and reduce the burden of illness.

The What Every Nurse Needs to Know About Palliative Care course teaches nurses working in every care setting the principles of palliative care. The course includes numerous tools that nurses can use to improve the care of patients they serve, including functional assessments, goal setting, delivering bad news, advance care planning and more. Nurses will learn when to refer a patient to palliative care and the benefits of providing palliative care in various care settings.

 Whether your organization has a dedicated palliative care team, contracts with another organization to offer palliative care, is considering starting a palliative care program, or is interested in integrating the principles of palliative care into your practice, this course is a critical part of your education. What Every Nurse Needs to Know About Palliative Care will help your nurses understand the benefits of palliative care, how it is different from usual care and hospice, and know when and how to refer a patient to palliative care.

What Every Nurse Needs to Know About Palliative Care includes case scenarios, multi-media content, extensive resources and multiple tools to enrich the online learning experience. This course is one of a series of courses designed to teach the entire organization about palliative care. Learn more about the What Every… Needs to Know About Palliative Care series and maximize your investment in palliative care.

Course Authors

• Kathy Brandt, MS
• Carol Lovci, RN, MSN
• Monique Parrish, DrPH, MPH, LCSW
• Karl Steinberg, MD, CMD
• Sue Wintz, MDiv, BCC

Completion and Refunds

In order to complete this course and obtain a certificate, you must view the course in its entirety, correctly answer all case studies and quiz/test questions (as appropriate) and complete the evaluation. You will have 90 days to access this course from the date of purchase. No refunds are given for self-paced courses.