Browse Theses

Palliative care can improve quality of life for chronically ill patients by offering interventions that aim to relieve pain, stress, and suffering by controlling symptoms in the setting of chronic progressive illnesses and offering much needed support. Acute care nurses have a significant role in advocating palliative care services to chronically ill patients. Unfortunately, the lack of palliative care knowledge among acute care nurses may result in delayed referrals and loss of early benefits. There is a need for nurses to be educated about palliative care to effectively advocate services for chronically ill patients. There is justification to examine the impact of additional education of nurses to improve the initiation of palliative care referrals in the acute care setting due to an increased number of people living longer with chronic illnesses. The purpose of this quantitative, retrospective, quasi-experimental study was to determine if an educational in-service aimed at improving palliative care knowledge among acute care nurses could effectively improve the initiation of palliative care referrals.