Critical care nurses are leaders in healthcare, serving in clinical, education, research, and administrative roles. They are uniquely prepared to address the many needs of critical care patients facing life-threatening illness or accident. The ELNEC-Critical Care project was developed to meet the special needs of critically ill patients and families facing the end of life across various critical care settings and to equip critical care nurses in providing excellent end-of-life/palliative care.
The first ELNEC-Critical Care train-the-trainer program was held November 13-15, 2006 in Pasadena, CA with 70 participants. To date, 344 critical care nurses have attended one of these 4 training programs, representing 31 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada. Two courses are scheduled for 2008: April 21-23 in Pasadena, CA and October 9-11 in the Washington, DC area. Critical care nurses who have attended these courses are staff nurses, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, university faculty, hospice liaisons who work in Intensive Care, Coronary Care Units, Hospices and Visiting Nurses Associations, and Emergency Departments. After completing the ELNEC train-the-training program, these nurses are equipped with up-dated resources, including objectives for each of the 8 modules, outlines, powerpoint slides, “talking points” for each slide, references, case studies, and other supplemental teaching materials, so they could return to their institutions and train others in excellent end-of-life/palliative care.
The ELNEC-Critical Care curriculum contains eight modules. They are:
Module 1: Palliative Care in Critical Care Nursing
Module 2: Pain Management
Module 3: Symptom Management
Module 4: Communication
Module 5: Ethical Issues in Critical Care Nursing
Module 6: Final Hours of Life
Module 7: Loss, Grief, and Bereavement
Module 8: Achieving Quality Palliative Care
