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End-of-Life
Nursing Education Consortium Reaches
Over 250,000 Nurses in its First Four Years
Collaborative
Project Serves as a Catalyst for Enhancing End-of-Life Nursing
Care
WASHINGTON,
D.C., July 6, 2004 - The End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium
(ELNEC) project, a national initiative to improve end-of-life
care in the United States, has just completed its fourth year.
To date, 1,632 staff nurses, nursing administrators, continuing
education providers, clinical nurse specialists, nurse practitioners,
and undergraduate and graduate nursing faculty have participated
in this "train-the-trainer" program. According to
follow-up surveys received from the participants, approximately
250,000 RNs and student nurses have received end-of-life content
as a result of these training programs.
The ELNEC
project began in February 2000 and was funded by a major grant
from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Two new projects,
funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), are providing
education to graduate nursing faculty and to oncology nurses
and will continue ELNEC training through 2008.
During
2004, the ELNEC project will have completed 4 training courses
to three distinct groups of nursing professionals. One-hundred
graduate nursing faculty members, 128 oncology nurses and
80 pediatric nurses will have completed the 3-day "train-the-trainer"
courses this year alone. By the end of August 2004, over 180
pediatric nurses, representing every major pediatric nursing
organization, hospital and hospice in the US will have received
this training. They will return to their institutions and
disseminate this information to their staff through in-service
classes, university courses, new employee orientation and
other means. The remaining courses for 2004-2008 will provide
training for at least one faculty member in every graduate
School of Nursing in the US. In addition, 120 Oncology Nursing
Society chapters will have 2 members who have been trained
in ELNEC. These trainers will return to their chapter and
disseminate the ELNEC curriculum to their fellow members.
Trainers
use ELNEC materials to teach end-of-life care content to students
and practicing nurses across the country. ELNEC implementation
activities range from modest to extraordinary; from conducting
a staff development program for 10 nurses in one agency to
reaching hundreds of nurses in a large multi-hospital system;
from a few students in one academic course, to entire graduating
classes of nursing students. Regardless of size, the efforts
are improving end-of-life care in this country.
ELNEC trainers, who represent all 50 states, are employed
in hospitals, clinics, research centers, hospices and universities.
In addition, many other members of the interdisciplinary team
(i.e. physicians, clergy, pharmacists, physical therapists,
etc) have attended these courses with their nursing colleagues
and have benefited from this training. 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.
The ELNEC
project is administered by the American Association of Colleges
of Nursing (AACN) and the City of Hope National Medical Center
of Los Angeles. For more information on this project, see
http://www.aacn.nche.edu/ELNEC.
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CONTACT:
Robert Rosseter
(202) 463-6930, x231
rrosseter@aacn.nche.edu
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