Preparing Oncology Advanced Practice Nurses as Generalists in Palliative Care

This R25 renewal application supports an innovative skills development program to educate the current nursing workforce to meet the nation's need for palliative care in oncology. By utilizing a skills-based innovative program to educate Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs), this proposal will equip and expand the nursing workforce to meet a critical need for palliative care in oncology. This renewal continues the very successful initial oncology APRN training course. The Specific Aims are: Specific Aim 1: Revise the ELNEC (End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium) Advanced Practice Nursing curriculum based on the courses held to date to train oncology nurses as generalist palliative care providers and leaders. Specific Aim 2: Deliver the curriculum in five national workshops to competitively selected oncology APRNs from National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated clinical and comprehensive cancer centers, as well as community cancer centers. Specific Aim 3: Evaluate the impact of the curriculum by measuring the process and outcomes of participants' integrating the training to advance palliative care practices at their institutions. Specific Aim 4: Disseminate findings through peer-reviewed publications, oncology organizations, and professional networks, and develop a network of course participants to share experiences in integrating palliative care at participating cancer centers. Rigorous research has amassed a body of evidence documenting palliative care benefits for cancer patients and their families and identifying opportunities to improve cancer patient care. Despite proven benefits, there oncology Previous palliative demonstrate is often no system in place to provide concurrent palliative and care and cancer patients often decline palliative care, even when it is available. systematic reviews have highlighted the need to train oncology professionals to deliver care. Outcomes from courses 1-4 in the current R25 training program have success in the project aims and impact on practice.This innovative program focuses on APRNs in cancer centers, who are models of leadership and best care available for patients. These nurses can serve as palliative care generalists to collaborate with specialty palliative care. A total of 400 participants from cancer centers will participate in one of five courses.