姑息治疗与医学

抽象的

Palliative Care Education: Does it Influence Future Practice

Tony Bush*

It is generally recognised that there is a need for nursing education to incorporate palliative care education within undergraduate programs in order to meet the professional and personal demands made upon nurses when providing end of life care [1,2]. Whilst historically, palliative care was confined to patients with cancer, it has now become a form of care offered to patients experiencing an incurable chronic disease [3]. With an ageing population it is expected that an increasing number of patients will require palliative carein a variety of settings including, a person’s own home, nursing homes, hospices, and virtually every clinical setting within acute care [4]. Nurses play a pivotal role in palliative and end of life care [5] and such care is recognised as being largely provided by nurses [6]. However, for this care to be effectively delivered requires nursing curricula to include discrete palliative care topics in order to help nursing students to be better prepared to assist palliative patients and their families [5].