Abstract
Providing appropriate end-of-life care is not only a critical part of palliative care but a basic human right. Nurses are well positioned to perform this role; however, the delivery of end-of-life care is difficult. The purpose of this project was to prepare nurses to meet the challenges associated with end-of-life care and to optimize the opportunity for a peaceful death. The project comprised a mixed-methods design, analyzing a palliative care training program for a quantitative and qualitative impact on practice. Preintervention focus group discussions resulted in 6 primary themes concerning the care of these patients: ethical challenges, cultural/spiritual difficulties, troubling emotional aspects, communication challenges, frustrations, and basic unfamiliarity with end-of-life care. Nurses expressed uncertainties about their role in end-of-life care and how best to manage challenges within their scope of practice. There was a statistically significant increase in testing scores from pretraining to posttraining. Postintervention discussions identified changes within nursing practice expressed through 5 primary themes: enhanced communication, symptom management, improved emotional response, improved understanding of ethical principles, and the trajectory of death. Nurses need to receive education to understand their role within end-of-life care and effectively care for the dying patient when cure is no longer an option.