END-OF-LIFE
NURSING EDUCATION CONSORTIUM RECEIVES
GRANT FUNDING TO EXPAND PROJECT'S REACH
National
Cancer Institute Awards Funding to Train Graduate Faculty
WASHINGTON,
D.C., August 13, 2002 – The End-of-Life Nursing Education
Consortium (ELNEC) is pleased to announce that the National
Cancer Institute has awarded a $1.4 million grant to expand
the reach of the consortium’s national nursing education
initiative. Grant funding will be used to improve end-of-life
nursing care through faculty development efforts that will
reach all of the graduate nursing programs in the U.S. The
grant was awarded to the City of Hope National Medical Center
in partnership with the American Association of Colleges
of Nursing (AACN) and the Northwestern Memorial Hospital/Robert
H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center (NMH). Dr. Judy Paice
is co-investigator from NMH and Anne Rhome is co-investigator
for AACN.
“This
generous award will have a resounding impact on the quality
of end-of-life care delivered by advance practice nurses
in this country,” said Betty R. Ferrell, PhD, RN, FAAN,
research scientist at the City of Hope and principal investigator
for the ELNEC project. “This funding will allow the
consortium to build on our strong foundation and reach out
to a new audience of nurse educators.”
Launched
in February 2000, ELNEC provides nurse educators with essential
training in end-of-life care and equips participants with
the knowledge and resources to share this new expertise
with nursing students and practicing nurses. Those receiving
ELNEC training have included faculty from baccalaureate
and associate degree programs as well as continuing education/staff
development providers. Funded by a major grant from The
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, ELNEC has trained over 1,000
nurse educators representing all 50 states. Over the next
few years, project leaders estimate that ELNEC-trained educators
will touch the lives of 6 million patients and their families
facing the end of life.
Addressing
the need for improved professional education to improve
end-of-life care, this new grant will directly impact the
nursing care of dying patients, including the 550,000 individuals
who die of cancer each year in the U.S. Project leaders
will use funding to adapt ELNEC curriculum and teaching
materials for use in graduate nursing programs. Beginning
in 2003, four training sessions will be held with nurse
educators from 63% of the nation’s graduate nursing
schools. The remaining schools (37%) will be reached indirectly
through dissemination efforts.
“We
applaud the National Cancer Institute for their commitment
to quality nursing care and their understanding that education
makes a difference in professional nursing practice,”
added Kathleen Ann Long, PhD, RNCS, FAAN, president of AACN.
City
of Hope National Medical Center is an innovative
biomedical research, treatment and educational institution
located just outside of Los Angeles. Designated a Comprehensive
Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute, City of
Hope is dedicated to the prevention and cure of cancer,
HIV/AIDS, diabetes, and other life-threatening diseases.
The Center’s philosophy of Hope has inspired its health
care experts to develop programs that focus on treating
the whole person—their emotional, spiritual and social
wellbeing—in addition to their physical care. It is
this combination of patient-centered care, state-of-the-art
treatment and groundbreaking research that has made City
of Hope a leader in the fight against devastating diseases.
Web site: http://www.cityofhope.org
The American Association
of Colleges of Nursing
is the national voice for university and four-year-college
education programs in nursing. Representing more than 580
member schools of nursing at public and private institutions
nationwide, AACN's educational, research, governmental advocacy,
data collection, publications, and other programs work to
establish quality standards for bachelor's- and graduate-degree
nursing education, assist deans and directors to implement
those standards, influence the nursing profession to improve
health care, and promote public support of baccalaureate
and graduate nursing education, research, and practice.Web
site: http://www.aacn.nche.edu
The
Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of
Northwestern University is the academic partner of Northwestern
Memorial Hospital. The Cancer Center is one of only
two centers in Illinois to receive the prestigious National
Cancer Institute (NCI) Comprehensive Cancer Center designation.
Through the collaboration between Northwestern Memorial
and the Cancer Center, patients benefit from state-of- the-art
clinical care as well as access to a wide range of clinical
trials. The Cancer Center is a leader in research, conducted
by nationally recognized clinicians and scientists. Web
site: http://www.lurie.nwu.edu
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CONTACT: Robert Rosseter
(202) 463-6930, x231
rrosseter@aacn.nche.edu
