VA Palo Alto Serves as Learning Lab for End-of-Life and Palliative Care
Monday June 30, 2008
Print This- Select Text Size:
Comments
advertisement
To arm hospitals with the support they need, seven hospitals nationwide are serving as learning labs and hosting free site visits through the Hospital-Based Palliative Care Consortium. The consortium, which was established by the Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania and is managed by the Health Research & Educational Trust, is funded by a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
“This is an opportunity for hospitals to send their palliative care teams to us so we can tailor the educational experience to their needs, answer their questions, and help them work through any programmatic issues they may be having in establishing their own programs,” says Michelle Gabriel, RN, MS, ACHPN, palliative care clinical nurse specialist at Veterans Affairs (VA) Palo Alto Health Care System in Palo Alto, Calif., one of the selected learning labs.
The consortium's program involves three phases. During the first phase, a host hospital receives materials that will help its planning committee prepare for the site visit. The participating hospital teams also complete surveys to gauge the visiting hospital's strengths and weaknesses. Phase two involves the site visit to the host hospital to see firsthand how a well-functioning palliative care program operates. During the last phase, visiting hospitals are given feedback as they implement their own programs.
Dealing with end-of-life issues requires specialized skill sets that include pain and symptom management, and communication skills that include how to talk about grief and bereavement, Gabriel says. There is also a focus on understanding the natural history and complications of chronic diseases.
“Most nurses today will be exposed to patients who are chronically ill or are dying,” Gabriel says. “However, many are not fully prepared for these situations, so instead of discussing end-of-life issues, they may completely avoid communication with the patient and family.”
“My training taught me how to work as a colleague alongside physicians … how to provide consultations … a better understanding of the basis and pathophysiology of diseases and how to communicate this to other nurses, physicians, and families,” she says.
The Palo Alto VA offers interdisciplinary palliative care fellowships to a variety of healthcare workers, including nurses, social workers, psychologists, and chaplains, based on preceptor availability.
Many hospitals like the Palo Alto VA also provide palliative care training and education to their nurses through the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) project, a national education initiative that provides a standardized curriculum to train nursing students and practicing nurses.
Gabriel, who hosts 3 two-day ELNEC seminars at the VA annually, says the training is needed because most nurses receive little palliative care training in their core curricula. “Palliative care issues bisect many areas of the hospital, and most nurses are not prepared to deal with these issues,” she says. “As we see an increasing number of older and chronically ill patients, all nurses will benefit by having some understanding and basic skill sets in palliative care medicine.”
Susan Meyers is a freelance writer. To comment, e-mail editorCA@nurseweek.com.
Reader Comments
Login
Be the first to comment!