A novel interprofessional approach to end-of-life care education: A pilot study

Abstract

Navigating the biomedical, emotional, and logistical complexity of end-of-life (EOL) care requires seamless interprofessional teamwork. Unfortunately, EOL care, interprofessional collaboration, and the role of support services such as hospice are not adequately emphasized in nursing and medical curricula. This article describes a student-run program, entitled the "HeArt of Medicine", which was designed to foster a reflective and collaborative approach to EOL care. The program consists of three workshops with a novel blend of art, science, and practical information, highlighting the need for interprofessional teamwork. Participants were surveyed before and after the workshops on their attitudes toward EOL care. Composite participant scores after workshops demonstrated increased comfort with and knowledge of EOL care topics (p = 0.001). The results show that this program has had a positive impact on participants' knowledge, comfort, and collaboration in EOL settings.

Exploring Quality of Life in End-of-Life Discussions

“…The findings demonstrated that there was increased knowledge, comfort, and collaboration in EOL settings. 20…”

Palliative Care Educational Interventions for Prelicensure Health-Care Students: An Integrative Review

“…The final sample of 34 articles contained quantitative (n ¼ 24), [9][10][11][12][13][16][17][18][19]21,23,24,[26][27][28][29][30][31][33][34][35][36]40,41 mixed methods (n ¼ 8), 14,15,20,32,[37][38][39]42 and qualitative (n ¼ 2) 22,25 studies, of which few examined interprofessional samples (n ¼ 4). [9][10][11][12] Within the studies with interprofessional samples, 3 utilized educational interventions for medical and nursing students. The other interprofessional study incorporated prelicensure medical students with licensed professionals from nursing, medicine, physiotherapy, and psychology.…”

“…[9][10][11] For example, Korzeniewska-Eksterowicz et al 10 had almost 6 times as many medical students as nursing students in their interprofessional sample. In the study by Sinha et al, 12 researchers included medical students, prelicensure nursing students, and graduate nursing students. This study failed to distinguish between prelicensure and graduate nursing student results; therefore, only the results for medical students were included in the review table.…”

“…In identifying the type of care, researchers used the following terms: EOL (n ¼ 15), 9,[11][12][13]16,18,21,[25][26][27][28]30,32,38,40 palliative care (n ¼ 4), 10,14,23,33,42 hospice (n ¼ 1), 37 palliative care and EOL used interchangeably (n ¼ 11), 15,17,19,20,29,31,33,34,36,39,41 EOL and hospice used interchangeably (n ¼ 1), 24 and palliative care, hospice, and EOL used interchangeably (n ¼ 2). 22,35 Teaching Strategies Different teaching interventions were reported across the studies.…”

“…22,35 Teaching Strategies Different teaching interventions were reported across the studies. These were workshops/programs/curricula (n ¼ 10), 10,12,13,16,17,19,26,33,36,42 11,18,20,21,25,28,30,32,40 patient care experiences (n ¼ 7), 14,22,24,29,[37][38][39] dedicated courses (n ¼ 4), 9,15,23,27 and End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) or Education for Physicians on End-of-Life Care (EPEC) training (n ¼ 4). 31,34,35,41 Of the interprofessional studies, the majority utilized workshops in teaching students (n ¼ 3).…”