FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY
8, 2002
NURSING
JOURNAL LAUNCHES NEW CONTINUING EDUCATION SERIES ABOUT
CARING FOR TERMINALLY ILL PATIENTS
Series
Marks Significant Step to Educate Practicing Nurses on
Palliative Care
Research
indicates that quality end-of-life care has been sorely
lacking in the United States. Ongoing surveys reveal that
nurses feel inadequately prepared to care for dying patients.
To address this knowledge gap, the American Journal
of Nursing (AJN) is publishing a bimonthly,
palliative nursing care continuing education series.
The
series represents a broad outreach to clinical nurses
across all specialties about end-of-life care. AJN,
the official journal of the American Nurses Association
(ANA), currently reaches about 342,000 nurses from diverse
settings and positions.
The
series of bimonthly articles will present a broad review
of best research and practices in end-of-life care using
actual case studies to improve the way nurses care for
the dying and their families. The series debuts in the
May 2002 issue of AJN, and the leading article
provides an overview of palliative nursing care.
Specific
topics that will be covered in the series include pain
management; symptom management; cultural considerations
in end-of-life care; ethical and legal issues; preparation
and care for the time of death; achieving quality of life
at the end of life; and grief, loss and bereavement.
"Every
nurse at some point is confronted with end-of-life care
issues. Nurses need to develop a better understanding
of the modern experience of dying, the options available
to patients and families, and the obligations of communities
to those approaching death," said Betty Ferrell,
PhD, RN, research-scientist at the City of Hope National
Medical Center in Los Angeles and one of two editors of
the series. "This new series will teach nurses how
to manage the many physical and psychological issues facing
patients and families throughout a life-threatening illness."
The
journal's decision to publish the series reflects a need
to strengthen nursing education in end-of-life care. An
in-depth analysis of nursing textbooks, sponsored by City
of Hope, found that only 2 percent examine end-of-life
care topics. A review of pain management found that this
topic was especially lacking.
"Because
nurses are the patient's primary contact at the bedside
and with the family, nurses should have a good understanding
of how to provide care, comfort, and counseling to patients
and family members," said Nessa Coyle, RN, co-editor
of the new series and director of Memorial Sloan-Kettering's
Supportive Care Program in New York City. "Nurses
are a valuable source of stability for all when times
are hard. They are needed to manage pain and anxiety as
well as to provide assistance with suffering, grief, loss,
and bereavement."
The
series builds upon the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium
(ELNEC) project, an initiative of the American Association
of Colleges of Nursing and City of Hope to improve nurses'
breadth of knowledge on end-of-life care. Previous efforts
of ELNEC include the development of a curriculum and eight
corresponding courses to educate faculty, continuing education
providers, and state boards of nursing representatives
on end-of-life care.
ANA
serves on the ELNEC steering committee and participated
in ELNEC curriculum development. ANA has long been involved
with end-of-life and palliative nursing care issues, having
published a series of position statements on these issues
in the 1990s (available at www.nursingworld.org).
In 2001, ANA released a revised Code of Ethics with Interpretative
Statements for Nurses that states "Nurses have invaluable
experience, knowledge and insight into care at the end
of life and should be actively involved in related research,
education, practice and policy development." ANA
also belongs to the Last Acts Campaign, a coalition of
professional and consumer organizations that has launched
a national effort to raise awareness of the need to improve
care of the dying and to share issues and ideas at the
national, state and local levels.
Both
editors of the AJN series are experts in their
field. Ferrell managed the development of the ELNEC courses
and curriculum on end-of-life care; and both Ferrell and
Coyle edited the recently released Textbook of Palliative
Nursing.
Continuing
education contact hours will be available for each article.
The series will soon be available at www.ajnonline.com;
the first article in the series is now available at www.aacn.nche.edu/elnec/ajn.htm
and www.nursingcenter.com.
Also, to foster discussion of the articles, readers' responses
to the case studies and research on end-of-life care are
welcome.
Founded
in 1900, the award-winning American Journal of Nursing
is the largest and oldest circulating nursing journal
in the world. It is published by Lippincott Williams &
Wilkins, a unit of Wolters Kluwer International Health
& Science (WKIHS), which is a group of leading publishing
companies offering specialized publications and software
in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, science, and related areas.
WKIHS also includes Ovid Technologies, Facts and Comparisons,
Adis International, and Kluwer Academic Publishing.
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ANA
is the only full-service professional organization representing
the nation's 2.7 million Registered Nurses through its
54 constituent associations. ANA advances the nursing
profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice,
promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in
the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view
of nursing, and by lobbying the Congress and regulatory
agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the
public.
