Accelerating advanced practice palliative care competencies: An educational research initiative

Abstract

Objective: To describe the process and impact of integrating palliative care into the nursing curriculum to accelerate advanced practice palliative care competencies.

Methods: Educational research was implemented at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD to integrate palliative care knowledge and skills into the advanced practice nursing curriculum. Palliative care principles and skills were threaded through the curriculum and resources and contents were shared across graduate programs, faculty members, and students throughout the school. Additionally, palliative care workshops, symposium and conference were organized at the school to increase academic-practice partnerships and disseminate project progress. The initiative was evaluated using the Palliative Care Quiz for Nursing (PCQN) and Palliative-Care Self-efficacy Scale (PCSES) among faculty and students annually. Additional data on overall feedback on research activities were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, and analysis of variance.

Results: In total 54 students, faculty, and clinicians participated in two workshops. The evaluation of workshops identified a significant improvement in confidence scores. In total, 620 faculty and students responded to the annual school-wide survey: 203 in 2019, 242 in 2020, and 175 in 2021. There were no significant changes in palliative care knowledge and confidence scores after integrating content within the curriculum. The participants agreed or strongly agreed with the overall positive feedback for the project events regarding expectation, pace, relevance, and objective.

Conclusions: The academic-practice partnership could be one model for improving palliative care competencies. More educational initiatives are needed to identify the role of educational models with appropriate evaluation measures in preparing a competent palliative care workforce.