Communication skills for end-of-life nursing care. Teaching strategies from the ELNEC curriculum

The End of Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) is a train-the-trainer educational program that helps nursing faculty integrate care of the dying patient and the patient's family into the nursing curriculum. This article presents pedagogical techniques derived from the ELNEC teaching module on communication and key content areas for developing communication skills in end-of-life care. Competent end-of-life nursing care begins with an understanding of communication techniques and their potential impact on care.     

Ethical and legal issues in end-of-life care: content of the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium curriculum and teaching strategies.

The End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) is a train-the-trainer educational program to help nursing faculty integrate care of dying patients and their families in the nursing curriculum. This article presents techniques derived from the ELNEC project regarding teaching the ethics module and the key content areas for developing ethical decision-making skills in end-of-life care. Competent end-of-life nursing care begins with an understanding of ethics and the potential affect on care of dying patients and their families.     

Preparation and care at the time of death: content of the ELNEC curriculum and teaching strategies.

Nurses are exposed to death across the lifespan ranging from stillbirths to neonatal deaths to deaths of children, adolescents, or adults from trauma or various acute or chronic illnesses. To provide quality care at the end of life, nurses must not only possess the knowledge and skills to provide effective end-of-life care, but must also develop the attitudes and interpersonal competence to provide compassionate care. The purpose of this article is to present the key content and teaching strategies related to preparation and care at the time of death based on the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) curriculum. As nurses are educated regarding end-of-life care in undergraduate nursing curriculums and through continuing education programs, the expectation is that quality care will be provided and the suffering of patients and families alleviated. Clearly, nurses play a key role in improving the care of the dying in America.     

Acute care teaching in the undergraduate nursing curriculum

Aim:  To incorporate basic aspects of acute care into the undergraduate nursing programme by providing an opportunity for the development of knowledge and skills in the early recognition and assessment of deteriorating patients on general hospital wards.
Background:  Acute care initiatives implemented in the hospital setting to improve the identification and management of 'at risk' patients have focused on the provision of education for trained or qualified staff. However, to ensure student nurses are 'fit to practice' at the point of registration, it has been recommended that acute care theory and skills are incorporated into the undergraduate nursing curriculum.
Practice development initiative:  An 'Integrated Nursing Care' module was incorporated into year 3 of the undergraduate nursing programme to introduce students to acute care theory and practice. Module content focuses on the early detection and management of acute deterioration in patients with respiratory, cardiac, neurological or renal insufficiencies. We used a competency-based framework to ensure the application of theory to practice through the use of group seminars. High-fidelity patient-simulated clinical scenarios were a key feature. The United Kingdom Resuscitation Council Intermediate Life Support course is also an important component of the module.
Conclusions:  Incorporating the Integrated Nursing Care module into the undergraduate nursing curriculum provides pre-registration students the opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills in acute care.
Relevance to clinical practice:  The provision of undergraduate education in care of the acutely ill patient in hospital is essential to improve nurses' competence and confidence in assessing and managing deteriorating patients in general wards at the point of registration.     

Case management curriculum in nursing education

Case management has been viewed as an essential function within the current healthcare environment. While the importance of case management in providing quality patient care is documented in the literature and in statements by national nursing and healthcare organizations, there is limited identification and documentation of case management content in nursing education programs. The purpose of this study was to identify the current case management content taught in nursing education programs and to determine the essential concepts and skills of case management relevant to associate, baccalaureate, and graduate nursing education. Using the results of this study, one baccalaureate nursing program revised a chronic illness course to expand the classroom presentation and clinical experience associated with case management content.     

Home care nursing orientation model: content and strategies.

Orientation for the home healthcare nurse consists of specific content areas that are organized into a comprehensive program. The teaching strategies used to deliver the content are just as important as the information included in the orientation program.     

Analysis of end-of-life content in critical care nursing textbooks

Nurses have identified a need for improving their knowledge and skills in providing end-of-life care. Critical care nursing textbooks can serve as an important source of information on end-of-life care for critical care nurses. Hence, an analysis of end-of-life content in 14 critical care nursing textbooks was conducted. Critical care nursing textbooks used for review were published in 1995 or later and identified from the libraries at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Brigham Young University. The end-of-life content areas identified by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), under which the AACN end-of-life competencies for undergraduate nursing students can be taught, were used as a framework for assessing the presence or absence of end-of-life content in the textbooks. When end-of-life content was present, two reviewers judged whether the information was helpful. Four additional end-of-life content areas were identified in some textbooks during the study, and reviewers also judged whether these were helpful. None of the textbooks had end-of-life content in all the content areas used for the analysis. Three textbooks did not contain any end-of-life content.     

The impact of end-of-life curriculum content on the attitudes of associate degree nursing students toward death and care of the dying

Because end-of-life care competes with other nursing content for a place in the curriculum, nurse educators are challenged to select effective teaching strategies to prepare graduates to care for dying patients. An elective course using the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium curriculum was compared with a 3-hour lecture embedded in a larger medical–surgical course. Results suggested that both content-delivery methods positively impacted the attitude of students toward death and care of the dying to some extent; however, significant positive changes were noted in both intervention groups and in the control group that viewed the film Wit.     

Teaching on the spiritual dimension in care to undergraduate nursing students: the content and teaching methods

The study unit on 'The spiritual dimension in care'had a Judeo-Christian orientation. It was introduced to the Diploma nursing curriculum at the University of Malta in the academic year 2002-2003. The aim was to increase students' awareness about the essence of spirituality in care so as to enable them to implement holistic care. Spirituality may or may not incorporate religiosity. Thus, believers may have spiritual needs which may include religious needs whilst the atheists and agnostics may still have spiritual needs. While considering secularisation, the Christian culture of Malta was addressed in this study unit. This article describes the content structure of the study unit based on the ASSET model (Narayanasamy, A., 1999. ASSET: a model for actioning spirituality and spiritual care education and training in nursing. Nurse Education Today 19, 274-285) and outlines the various teaching methods used. Following feedback from the first and second cohort groups in 2003 and 2004, respectively, the reviewed study unit was delivered to the third cohort group of students (n=65) in Semester 2 in the academic year 2004-2005. Apart from the use of traditional teaching methods, such as lessons and a seminar, other methods were used constantly throughout the study unit, for example, self-reflection exercises, case-studies and small group discussions to enhance learning. Recommendations are proposed to review the content of this study unit and to introduce other teaching methods for effective learning.     

Oncology nursing education: teaching strategies that work

Faculty at a university school of nursing developed an innovative oncology nursing elective designed to enhance baccalaureate students' knowing and aesthetic appreciation of persons living with cancer. Following completion of the course, students rank ordered class activities they felt would help them most in their nursing careers. Students chose the cancer survivor interview first, followed by a seminar on spirituality and a clinical inquiry project. The implementation and outcomes of these three activities are described. Evaluative comments confirmed that experiential activities enhanced students' knowing of themselves and their patients.     

基于课程标准的高职《母婴护理》教学实践

《母婴护理》是高职护理专业核心课程之一,在课程实施过程中依据课程标准,整体思考教学目标、教学内容、教学方法、教学与评价的一致性等问题,是高职课程建设与改革的方向。     

Trauma-informed education: Creating and pilot testing a nursing curriculum on trauma-informed care

BackgroundTrauma is a significant contributor to morbidity and mortality. Trauma-informed care (TIC) provides a safe and supportive healthcare environment for patients who have experienced trauma. Educating healthcare providers improves knowledge, attitudes, and skills related to TIC. However, nursing programs do not systematically integrate TIC education.PurposeTo create, implement, and evaluate nursing content on TIC at the graduate and undergraduate levels at one university.MethodA pretest-posttest survey was utilized to assess changes in TIC knowledge, attitudes, and skills related to the delivery of content on trauma and TIC to students in three courses at one large Midwestern university in January 2019. Safety, acceptability, and transferability were also measured.FindingsThe content improved nursing students' knowledge and skills related to providing TIC. Further, content on TIC is acceptable to both undergraduate and graduate students and is transferrable to non-nursing students.DiscussionThe current study provides a trauma-informed nursing education model that is safe, appropriate, acceptable, and efficacious.     

基于整合课程基础上的高职护理跨学科教学研究

[目的]探讨基于整合课程基础上的跨学科教学实践途径及意义.[方法]将参与整合课程学习的学生设为实验组,传统教学课程学习的学生设为对照组,进行教学效果及学生满意度测定.[结果]两组教学效果比较差异有统计学意义(P＜0.01);实验组整合课程学习前后学生满意度比较差异有统计学意义(P＜0.01).[结论]在整合课程基础上的跨学科教学能有效增加高职护理教学内容的职业导向性,增加学生的学习兴趣,有助于学生综合护理能力的提高.     

Rescuing nursing education from content saturation: the case for a concept-based curriculum

Nursing education has been plagued with a saturation of content for many years. The multiple contributing factors underscore the complexity of the problem and validate the need for educational reform. The purpose of this article is to discuss various factors contributing to content saturation and propose a conceptual approach for curriculum development and teaching in nursing education.