DENVILLE, N.J. — Nurses at Saint Clare’s Health System welcomed Pat Murphy, RN, APN, PhD, FAAN, nationally known speaker, author, and practitioner to the Denville facility June 9. Murphy presented a continuing education program titled “Palliative Care: Evidence-Based Interventions in the ICU,” which included her research findings and those of other recognized practitioners/researchers in the field of palliative care.

“Research findings clearly support a new and different way to care for patients in the ICU,” Murphy said. She puts current research findings right into practice as a clinical associate professor at the New Jersey Medical School and a member of the Family Support Team at the UMDNJ-University Hospital. Murphy is also president of the New Jersey Board of Nursing and served on the New Jersey Bioethics Commission.

Supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Murphy and Anne Mosenthal, MD, set up an interdisciplinary model for palliative care in the trauma and surgical intensive care units. Palliative care was provided right along with all other appropriate care. Following that, Murphy and Mosenthal initiated another research project through the AETNA Foundation, looking at palliative care in the MICU. These two demonstration projects decreased length of ICU stay for dying patients, increased family satisfaction, and improved communication among staff and families, without increasing mortality.

Other research supports the fact that with or without palliative care, mortality rates remain the same. “With an integrative palliative care approach, we are providing better communication and improved consensus of care. We are decreasing patients’ length of stay in the hospital setting and increasing the use of hospice care,” Murphy said.

Participants learned about palliative care bundles that have been developed and are under development throughout the country as guidelines for palliative care. The New Jersey Hospital Association formed its own end-of-life task force, which will compile a statewide palliative care bundle. To learn more, visit njha.com.

Saint Clare’s Health System is an approved NJSNA provider of CE nursing programs. For information about other programs at Saint Clare’s, e-mail Barbara Martucci at bmartucci@saintclares.org.