An evaluation of Hospice New Zealand's interprofessional fundamentals of palliative care program at a single site

Abstract

The piloting of the Fundamentals of Palliative Care program at this single site was of benefit and relevance to participants in their clinical practice. Overall, participants felt the course was useful to them and that they were able to gain valuable knowledge and skills. Several areas could be refined to optimize the learning, including: (1) knowing attendee learning potentialities and prior experiences, (2) considering a more inclusive and formal assessment process, (3) creating diverse mechanisms for disseminating knowledge and skills, and (4) improving methods of evaluation.

Resources for Educating, Training, and Mentoring Nurses and Unregulated Nursing Care Providers in Palliative Care: A Review and Expert Consultation

“…Other studies reported positive gains from implementing practice-support tools, 13 an online course for nurse practitioners, 14 an online course for nurses that used individualized learning, 15 and education that used an interprofessional approach in residential care. 16 One innovative study, designed to enhance the capacity of palliative home care nurses to support the workplace learning of general practitioners, indicated positive gains in interprofessional learning and practice. 17 This is an important finding, because although home care nurses regularly find themselves in the role of informally educating general practitioners about palliative care, that role is rarely acknowledged or supported.…”

Palliative care nurse specialists’ reflections on a palliative care educational intervention in long-term care: an inductive content analysis

“…Previous research has indicated a staff preference for interactive, hands-on, applied learning [59] making the physical presence of the palliative care nurse specialists even more significant in sharing knowledge and practice. Furthermore, traditional training and education methods in palliative and end of life care have previously required registered nurses to leave the clinical environment to attend study days and training sessions [60] creating more staffing pressures for long-term care facilities. In contrast, SHARE does not pull registered nurses away from the bedside and therefore does not require “more time” to attend teaching sessions.…”