Despite hospice and palliative care services being available for patients at the end-of-life, it remains an easily accessible health care service which has been mostly underutilized and/or misunderstood. For this project, the practice problem was underutilization of hospice and palliative care services. A systematic review of the literature which focused on under usage of end-of-life care was conducted. MEDLINE, CINAHL, and ProQuest Nursing and Allied Source databases were searched (2005 to 2017). Studies that evaluated interventions for increasing hospice and palliative care services were selected. Conceptual variables included studies that addressed the under usage of end-of-life care. Kolcoba's comfort theory, Parse's theory of human becoming and Chochinov's dignity model was included to identify the issue, gather the data, and help transfer researched data into practice. The tools applied for analysis and synthesis were the appraisal of guidelines research and evaluation and the grading of recommendations, assessment, development and evaluation. The under usage of hospice and palliative care according to this systematic review, has resulted in (a)suffering negative effects on patients at the end of life, who do not receive adequate palliative or comfort care, (b) additional distress for families dealing with grief and denial, and (c) may result in unneeded acute care, adding significantly to the cost of care. This doctoral project formed a cogent set of recommendations consisting of, communication guidance and community education for a local hospice agency and the community. The contribution of positive social change in this community was through education and knowledge to bridge the gap into practice and improve end-of-life care in the community.

Most nurses receive limited formal education regarding end-of-life (EOL) care, which affects their ability to meet dying patients' needs. Guided by Bandura's social learning theory, this explanatory correlational study examined the relationships between critical care nurses' personal and professional characteristics and their perceived knowledge and self-efficacy when providing EOL care at an academic medical center. Convenience sampling was used to recruit participants from the eligible adult, pediatric, and neonatal critical care nurses for this study. The 67 participants completed the End-of-Life Professional Caregiver Survey (EPCS) to assess EOL care knowledge and self-confidence. Total EPCS scores revealed only moderate levels of EOL knowledge and self-confidence. The Fisher's exact test indicated that higher EPCS scores were significantly associated with nurses' age and completion of advance directive. A 3-day workshop was designed to address deficits related to EPCS scores and advance directive completion, while educating younger nurses to gain confidence in their EOL discussions. Additional research is recommended to distinguish between nurses' actual knowledge and perceived knowledge about EOL care, the long-term effects of EOL care education on the quality of patient care, nurses' levels of moral distress and burnout, and nurses' communication skills with patients and other health care providers. The result of this research promotes positive social change through EOL education to improve the confidence of nurses working with dying patients and their families, as well as to understand the challenges of communicating difficult decisions regarding EOL care.

Avoidable hospitalizations of hospice patients cost Medicare $3 billion a year. When hospice nurses are able to identify early signs and symptoms of acute illness and provide appropriate interventions to prevent such admissions, 20-60% of the hospitalizations are preventable. The practice problem addressed in this quality improvement doctor of nursing project was the 30% hospital admission rate of hospice patients as evidenced by chart review, admission data, and revocation data. The first purpose of the project was to identify evidence-based nursing care paths in the literature for the top 5 medical diagnoses related to avoidable hospital admissions. The second purpose was to develop an educational curriculum to educate the staff on the care paths with a pretest/posttest to assess knowledge gained from the education. Rosswurm and Larrabee's conceptual model was used to frame the project. Three content experts evaluated the curriculum plan using a 4 item dichotomous rating of 1 (not met) and 2 (met). An average score of 2 revealed that the curriculum content met the course objectives. Content experts validated each of the 16 pretest/posttest items using a Likert scale ranging from 1 (not relevant) to 4 (highly relevant). The content validation index score was .94, indicating that the pretest/posttest reflected the course objectives and content. Recommendations were made for structuring the pretest/posttest. The project promotes social change by assessing, intervening, and treating patients in the outpatient hospice setting to prevent avoidable hospitalizations, thus promoting patient well-being and fiscal responsibility of healthcare dollars.

Background: Advance directives allow patients to put in writing the type of health care they want if they are unable to make decisions due to their medical condition. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if there were differences in senior nursing students’ knowledge, attitudes, and confidence based on when the information is positioned in the curriculum. Theoretical: Social cognitive learning theory and Zimmerman’s self-regulation model provided the theoretical framework. Methods: This study reflected a non-experimental, exploratory design, with a convenience sample of senior nursing students from 2 different nursing programs in central Illinois. One program offers advance directive education in the first year and the other program offers the information in the second year. A total of 131 students participated in the study that used subscales of the Knowledge, Attitudinal, Experiential Survey on Advance Directives. Results: The group that received the information the second year rated themselves as having more confidence with advance directives. However, both groups scored low in the area of knowledge of advance directives, the Patient Self-Determination Act, and Illinois law. Students who reported higher knowledge levels had higher attitudes about end-of-life care. There was no difference in attitudes between the two groups. Conclusion: The results of this study highlight the need to review nursing curricula specifically relating to end-of-life care content and its placement in the curriculum.

No description available.

Disgust is a part of medical education. Whether in the anatomy lab, the operating room, or the hospital wards, medical school is often the first time that future doctors see human suffering manifested in bodies that elicit embarrassment, disgust and fear. Over the course of training, seeing such bodies goes from exceptional to commonplace as doctors learn to witness and empathize with suffering without becoming overwhelmed by it. In this thesis, I examine students’ first encounters with abject bodies in the anatomy lab, their later encounters with such bodies in their clinical years, and the educational programming shapes students’ gaze towards these bodies as they develop from laypeople into professionals. I argue that while medical humanities curricula implemented into gross anatomy help students manage challenging personal feelings elicited by the corpse, taboos and silences during the clinical years prevent students from thinking deeply about how patients experience having bodies that elicit disgust. The dearth of reflection on feelings of disgust during clinical training leaves doctors in training ill-equipped to promote and maintain patient dignity during medical care, particularly at the end of life. / Urban Bioethics

The mature minor doctrine legally allows minors with the maturity of an adult to make decisions about their medical treatment, sometimes without the knowledge of their parent or guardian. However, the mature minor doctrine does not live up to its expectations; there are no guidelines for determining if a minor is mature or if the minor has the capacity to consent. The court system’s reluctance to allow minors to refuse treatment, the focus on stereotypical adolescent behavior, and the possibility of penalization of the family also serve as drawbacks to minors exercising their right to bodily autonomy through the mature minor doctrine. Standardization can solve these issues, revolutionizing the mature minor doctrine so that minors’ preferences about their care, particularly in the setting of life-threatening illness, can be honored. / Urban Bioethics

Abstrakt  Bakgrund: Cirka 56,8 miljoner människor i världen beskrivs behöva palliativ vård varje år. I Sverige avlider cirka 90 000 människor per år och cirka 80% av dem kan ha behövt palliativ omvårdnad. Syfte: Syftet med litteraturöversikten är att beskriva sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av att vårda patienter i livets slutskede på sjukhus. Metod: En litteraturstudie genomfördes på nio kvalitativa artiklar. Databassökning genomfördes i Cinahl, Pubmed och PsycInfo. För att analysera studierna har Fribergs femstegsmodell använts. Resultat: Analysen resulterade i fyra huvudkategorier och tio underkategorier. De fyra huvudkategorierna var känslomässiga reaktioner, stöd och bristande stöd, copingstrategier och strävan efter att vara professionell. Konklusion: Sjuksköterskor upplever vård i livets slutskede som meningsfullt och känslomässigt utmanande. Kunskapsbrist hos sjuksköterskor kan påverka patienters vårdkvalitet och bristande stöd från arbetsplatsen kan påverka sjuksköterskors hälsa. Ytterligare forskning kan behövas angående sjuksköterskors utbildning och erfarenheter av palliativ vård. / Abstract  Background: Around 56.8 million people in the world are described as needing palliative care each year. In Sweden, around 90,000 people die each year and around 80% of them have needed palliative care. Aim: The aim of the literature study is to describe nurses' experiences of caring for patients at the end of life in hospitals. Methods: A literature study was carried out on nine qualitative articles. Database search was performed in Cinahl, Pubmed and PsycInfo. To analyze the studies, Friberg's five-step model has been used. Results: The analysis resulted in four main categories and ten subcategories. The four main categories were emotional reactions, support and lack of support, coping strategies and ambition to be professional. Conclusion: Nurses experience end-of-life care as meaningful and emotionally challenging. Lack of knowledge among nurses can affect patients' quality of care and lack of support from the workplace can affect nurses' health. Further research may be needed regarding nurses' education and experiences in palliative care.

Background: Twenty percent of Americans live in rural areas where most of their healthcare is provided in Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs). It is unknown how frequently obstacle and helpful behavior items occur in End-of-Life (EOL) care in CAHs. Objectives: To determine the frequency of occurrence scores of obstacle and helpful behavior items in providing EOL care in CAHs. To also determine which obstacles and helpful behaviors have the greatest or least impact on EOL care based on the magnitude scores. Methods: A questionnaire was sent to nurses working in 39 CAHs in the United States. Nurse participants were asked to rate obstacle and helpful behavior items by size and frequency of occurrence. Data were analyzed to quantify the impact of obstacle and helpful behavior items on EOL care in CAHs by multiplying the mean size by the mean frequency of items to determine mean magnitude scores. Results: Items with the highest and lowest frequency were determined. Additionally, obstacle and helpful behavior item magnitude scores were calculated. Seven of the top ten obstacles were related to patients' families. Seven of the top ten helpful behaviors involved nurses ensuring families had positive experiences. Discussion: CAH nurses perceived issues around patient family members as significant obstacles to EOL care. Nurses work to ensure that families have positive experiences. Visiting hour issues seemed to be irrelevant. The use of technology, such as telehealth, seemed to provide little benefit in EOL care in CAHs.

Bakgrund: Palliativ vård i livets slutskede syftar till att främja livskvalitet och lindra lidande. När döden är nära önskar de flesta att få slippa lidande samt få en död som är förenlig med sina egna värderingar. Värdighet som identitet är en av de viktigaste aspekterna i samband med vårdande och har stor påverkan på hur vårdandet av individen ska ske. Patientens värdighet kan i vårdsituationer gå förlorad på grund av bristande kunskaper och bemötande från hälso- och sjukvårdspersonal. Syfte: Syftet med denna litteraturöversikt var att undersöka sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av att bevara värdigheten hos vuxna patienter vid vård i livets slutskede. Metod: Studien har genomförts som en strukturerad litteraturöversikt med inslag av den metodologi som används vid systematisk litteraturöversikt. Genom systematisk databassökning har 13 artiklar identifierats. Artiklarna har kvalitetsgranskats och sedan analyserats enligt Fribergs analyssteg. Resultat: I resultatet framkom tre kategorier: Respekt för patienten, Kommunikation och Lindra lidande. Dessa komponenter ansågs vara viktiga i bevarandet av patientens värdighet vid vård i livets slutskede. Slutsats: Att bevara värdighet hos patienter vid vård i livets slutskede inbegriper respekt för patientens värdighet, god kommunikation mellan patient, närstående och vårdteam samt lindrat lidande. Detta kan uppnås genom att respektera och stödja patientens rätt till delaktighet i vård och behandling samt att vara lyhörd inför de preferenser och önskemå lpatienten har inför livets slutskede. Sjuksköterskans nyckeluppgift för att bevara patientens värdighet är att försöka förstå och respektera patientens bakgrund, tro och religion. Frånvaro av fysiskt och psykiskt lidande anses vara av vikt i bevarandet av patientens värdighet. / Background: Palliative care at the end of life aims to promote quality of life and alleviate suffering. When death is near, most people wish to avoid suffering and to have a death that is compatible with their own values. Dignity as an identity is one of the most important aspects in connection to caring and has a great influence on how the care of the individual should be done. The patient's dignity can be lost in care situations due to lack of knowledge and treatment from healthcare professionals. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore nurses’ experiences of preserving dignity in adult patients in end of life care. Method: The study has been conducted as a structured literature review with the elements of methodology used in systematic literature review. Through systematic database search, 13 articles have been identified. The articles have been quality checked and analyzed according to Friberg’s steps of analysis. Results: In the result three categories emerged: Respect for the patient, Communication and Reducing suffering. These components were considered important in the preservation of the patient’s dignity in end of life care. Conclusions: Preserving dignity of patients in end-of-life care includes respect for the patient's dignity, effective communication between the patient, relatives and care team, and alleviated suffering. This can be achieved by respecting and supporting the patient's right to participate in care and treatment, as well as being sensitive to the preferences and wishes the patient has before the end of life. Nurses’ key task in preserving the patient's dignity is to try to understand and respect the patient's background, faith and religion. Absence of physical and psychological suffering is considered important in preserving the patient's dignity.