Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Nurses' Delivery of Palliative Care in the ICU

It was recently announced that nurses at five University of California medical centers — UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC San Diego and UCSF — will be trained how to integrate palliative care into their existing intensive care unit (ICU) care plans thanks to a two-year, $1 million grant funded by the university.

This is an important step in changing the perception that palliative care must only be used as a last resort.  Very little is known about the relationships between quality palliative nursing care delivered in ICUs and patient and family outcomes and on how to measure and to improve these outcomes. An INQRI investigator-initiated study was designed to examine nursing's specific contributions to quality palliative care provided to patients and their families in the ICU. This interdisciplinary team was led by Lissi Hansen, Ph.D., R.N. and Richard Mularski, M.D.

To learn more about the UC grant, check out this story on Nurse.com.

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