The Advanced Practice Registered Nurses Palliative Care Externship: A Model for Primary Palliative Care Education.

Abstract

Nationally, the contribution of palliative care to high-quality health care continues to be recognized resulting in demand for palliative care services. This has resulted in an expected shortage of clinicians with palliative care knowledge and experience. The education and scope of practice of advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) provides an ideal foundation for further palliative care education and training to fill this gap. The authors sought a method to provide midcareer APRNs with education and training in primary palliative care. The program took place at a well-established palliative care program at an academic medical center. This article describes an Institutional Review Board-approved week-long intensive APRN externship designed to provide education and training in primary palliative care for APRNs across disease populations. To best educate these APRNs, who did not have formal palliative care in their graduate education, the externship includes didactic, experiential, and clinical components to meet the needs of APRNs with minimal palliative care education and/or experiences. Precourse and postcourse data collection was performed. Results demonstrated increased knowledge, skills, and confidence in palliative care. This is a sustainable model for primary palliative care and midcareer APRNs who wish to enter palliative care. It is replicable for other disciplines as well.