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AACN
CHOSEN BY THE ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON FOUNDATION
TO COORDINATE NATIONAL EFFORT TO IMPROVE
END-OF-LIFE NURSING CARE
WASHINGTON,
DC, March 3, 2000 -- The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has
awarded a grant of $2,224,543 to the American Association
of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) to support a comprehensive,
national education program to improve end-of-life (EOL) care
by nurses.
The 3-1/2
year effort to develop a core of expert nursing faculty in
end-of-life care, and to coordinate national nursing efforts
related to EOL issues, is a partnership of AACN and the City
of Hope Cancer Center. AACN will coordinate the program with
nurse researchers at the Los Angeles-based City of Hope (COH),
developing the course curriculum in nine core content areas
and evaluating the impact of the education.
Based
in Princeton, N.J., The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is
the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health
and health care.
"Nurses
spend more time with patients and their families than do any
other health professionals and are in the most immediate position
to provide care, comfort, and counsel at the end of life when
critical decisions must be reached and compassionate and highly
specialized care provided," explains AACN President Andrea
R. Lindell, DNSc, RN. "This program combines the resources
of AACN -- a leading education force in nursing -- with the
research expertise of City of Hope nurse investigators in
an ambitious learning program which will have considerable
impact on nursing education and practice."
"We are
excited to work with AACN in this national effort to improve
end-of-life care," says Betty R. Ferrell, PhD, RN, FAAN, research
scientist at City of Hope and a principal investigator for
the AACN / City of Hope project. "This partnership will combine
the leadership of AACN and our research and education efforts
to transform nursing care for patients and families facing
death."
The project
will closely parallel activities of the American Medical Association's
current program, "Educating Physicians for End-of-Life Care
(EPEC)," which is coordinating efforts to enhance end-of-life
care by practicing physicians. Several isolated efforts have
been launched in recent years addressing the need for improved
EOL care by nurses. However, there has been no unified program
that broadly addresses the preparation of the largest health
profession -- nursing -- to improve care at the end of life.
In addition, there also has been no organized effort to connect
EOL activities throughout nursing to attain maximum benefit.
After
accessing and analyzing all available educational materials
from AACN, the City of Hope, EPEC, hospice organizations,
and other sources, the AACN / COH project will develop a core
training curriculum to develop EOL expertise in nursing faculty
in bachelor's- and associate-degree programs, as well as for
faculty who teach in continuing education programs provided
by hospitals, hospices, specialty nursing organizations, and
private CE providers. The program also will reach state nursing
boards through collaboration with the National Council of
State Boards of Nursing.
The
curriculum will focus on a range of core areas in EOL care,
including broad issues of nursing care at the end of life;
as well as educational content in pain management; symptom
management; cultural considerations in EOL care; ethical/legal
issues; communication; grief, loss, and bereavement; preparation
and care for the time of death; and achieving quality of life
at the end of life.
Reinforcing
Recent Initiatives
The project's
content also will be guided by AACN's recent Peaceful
Death statement detailing the end-of-life care competencies
that every undergraduate nurse should attain. As the statement
emphasized, the AACN / COH project will work to add EOL content
not merely as one or two isolated courses, but integrated
throughout nursing curricula and clinical teaching. The project
also is reinforced by the work of City of Hope investigators
who over the past decade have developed pain management and
EOL content in multiple curricula. In addition, a major project
launched by the City of Hope in 1997 has included a review
of nursing textbooks that address EOL issues and steps to
improve EOL content in the national licensing exam for registered
nurses.
Training
through the AACN / City of Hope project will occur in five
conferences at educational sites around the nation for undergraduate
and continuing education faculty, as well as for staff and
board members of state boards of nursing. The first conference
is slated for January 2001.
In all,
the five programs will train a total of 500 faculty who will
have potential access, through their schools' or agencies'
educational programs, to 123,000 registered nurses projected
to receive the EOL content in the project's first two years.
Moreover, it is estimated that thousands of additional RNs
will receive EOL information and education through an AACN
Web site to be developed for the project, and through extensive
contacts to occur through AACN's communications with nursing
specialty organizations, the hospice and palliative nursing
community, and the efforts of the project's Advisory Board
organizations.
Recognized
Expertise and Broad National Reach
Investigators
for the AACN / City of Hope project include Geraldine Bednash,
PhD, RN, FAAN and Anne Rhome, MPH, RN, executive director
and deputy executive director, respectively, of the American
Association of Colleges of Nursing, and Frances Weed, MSN,
RN, director of special projects at AACN. Joining Dr. Ferrell
as investigators at the City of Hope are research scientist
Marcia Grant, DNSc, RN, FAAN and research specialist Rose
Virani, MHA, RN, OCN.
In developing
the EOL curricula, City of Hope investigators will work closely
with nationally recognized leaders in palliative nursing,
including Patrick Coyne, MSN, RN, CHPN, a clinical nurse specialist
at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals at Virginia Commonwealth
University and a leading authority on pain management and
hospice nursing education; Kathy Egan, MA, RN, CHPN, vice
president of the Hospice Institute of the Florida Suncoast,
a leader in end-of-life care, education, research, and program
innovation; Judy Paice, PhD, RN, FAAN, a nurse specialist
and pain management authority in the Palliative Care and Home
Hospice program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago;
and Joan Panke, BSN, RN, a hospice nurse expert who is currently
a graduate student in the Palliative Care program at New York
University School of Nursing.
Representing
10 organizations throughout nursing and health care, the project's
Advisory Board will provide extensive expert input for curriculum
development. The board also will facilitate national networking
among national nursing organizations, hospices, and the larger
professional community in EOL care. Advisory Board organizations
include representatives of:
American
Medical Association, EPEC Program
American Nurses Association
Consortium of Specialty Nursing Groups
Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association
National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Inc.
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
National Organization for Associate Degree Nursing
Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation
Oncology Nursing Society
Veterans Administration Health System
Conference
information and applications will be distributed in July 2000.
The American Association
of Colleges of Nursing is the national voice for university
and four-year-college education programs in nursing. Representing
more than 500 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.
City of Hope Cancer Center is one
of the world's leading research and treatment centers for
cancer and other life-threatening diseases, including diabetes
and HIV / AIDS. A pioneer in the field of bone marrow transplantation,
City of Hope is a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive
Care Center. To learn more about City of Hope, visit our Web
site at www.cityofhope.org.
City of Hope, where the power of knowledge saves lives.
CONTACT: Robert Rosseter
(202) 463-6930, x231
rrosseter@aacn.nche.edu
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