A majority of the nurses reported communication challenges with patients who spoke English as a second language. Oncology nurses did not identify patient communication behaviors that indicated low health literacy. Nurses were least comfortable identifying low-literacy patients and assessing a patient's health literacy level. More experienced nurses reported more difficulty with low-literacy populations than less experienced nurses. Providing health literacy support to patients should be a core nursing skill.

No abstract

Nurses have unique clinical responsibilities and opportunities with patients that require strong communication skills. However, many nurses lack effective communication skills and often receive inadequate palliative care communication training and education. To promote communication education for palliative care nurses, the End-of-Life Nursing and Education Consortium created a Communication Curriculum for nurses and developed an in-person train-the-trainer course. Organized by the 8 domains of the National Consensus Project Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care, a 1-day course was provided in August 2018 to 46 nurses representing 38 institutions. Completion of precourse surveys demonstrated participants’ institutional resources for palliative care communication education and their greatest communication challenges. Immediate postcourse evaluations demonstrated that the course improved nurses’ knowledge and confidence in communication and their ability to educate others. Palliative care nurses can incorporate communication skills into their practice and provide communication skills training to their institution.