Palliative and End-of-Life Care in Undergraduate Nursing Education

Palliative and end-of-life care (PEOLC) is a richly satisfying and challenging area of undergraduate nursing education. PEOLC encompasses the everyday work of nurses within an immensely nuanced, family-focused, and team-based approach to healthcare. How do and how might nurse educators prepare undergraduate nursing students for engaging in this area of nursing practice? We invite you to join the co-facilitators of this three-week webinar, to share experiences, insights, and questions regarding the complexities of undergraduate nursing education in PEOLC.

Date:

TBD

Course Description:

This course is a series of three webinars, encompassing a variety of topics and frameworks relevant to palliative and end-of-life care (PEOLC) undergraduate nursing education.  We will discuss ideas and concepts including but not limited to teaching and learning about human experiences and family caregiving in the context of PEOLC; principles of palliative care and a palliative approach; specifics of symptom relief; and nursing contributions in healthcare teams.  The philosophical framework for this course is inspired by relational and human science theories, within which human experiences are understood as subjective and interconnected.  We will invite you to share experiences, insights, questions, and existing teaching and learning resources to develop your understanding about how to prepare nursing students for PEOL caregiving in various settings.

Course completion requirements include:

Participation in three live webinars, completion of assigned readings and participation in a discussion forum.

Please note: participation in all live webinars is a course requirement.

A Certificate of Successful Completion will be granted to participants who successfully fulfill the course requirements.

Audience:

This course is designed for undergraduate nurse educators in any setting who want to share their ideas and experiences about PEOLC education with interested others, who are new to PEOLC education, or want a refresher.

Course Objectives:

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

  1. Review and critique frameworks or models useful for conceptualizing undergraduate PEOLC nursing education.
  2. Develop teaching-learning strategies to enhance delivery of undergraduate PEOLC nursing education.
  3. Share and summarize resources and learning activities relevant to developing competency in PEOLC nursing.

Course Delivery:

Online (Adobe Connect with Moodle);

Three hour live webinars, assigned readings and discussion forum participation.
Please note: participation in all live webinars is a course requirement.

One week prior to each webinar, participants will be provided with a reading to review and questions to ponder in preparation for that session’s presentation and discussion. These readings and questions may also be useful as resources for undergraduate nursing education in PEOLC. Participants are also invited to share examples of resources and learning activities they have found useful in teaching nursing students about PEOLC.

Additional readings and other resources will be posted on the Moodle site for use by participants.

About the Course Instructors

Coby Tschanz

Coby Tschanz has worked for over twenty years in the area of PEOL nursing. She is committed to advancing high quality PEOL nursing through teaching-learning with students and colleagues in academic and point-of-care settings. Presently, she is an Associate Teaching Professor and PhD student at the University of Victoria School of Nursing, with particular interests in nursing philosophy and theory-guided practice, contemplative pedagogy, human experiences, and palliative and end-of-life education. Coby also works as a casual employee for Victoria Hospice Society’s Palliative Response Team. She has participated in the development of CASN PEOLC Entry-to-Practice Competencies and Indicators for Registered Nurses and, as a member of the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Nurses’ Group, contributed to the revision of the CNA Joint Position Statement (The Palliative Approach to Care and the Role of the Nurse). Coby is co-chair of the CASN PEOLC Education Interest Group.

David Kenneth Wright

David Kenneth Wright is an assistant professor of nursing and co-director of the Nursing Palliative Care Research and Education Unit, University of Ottawa. He is passionate about nursing education, and believes that the ultimate role of nursing educators is to inspire an intellectual and moral identity amongst future nurses. An important part of this identity involves caring about – and taking responsibility for – the quality of palliative and end-of-life care for people who need it. Through research and teaching, David engages with other nurses – and nursing students – to explore the specifics of how nurses make important differences in the lives of people who are dying and their families.

Registration:

Fee: $250.

Registration fee includes:

  • Three, 1.5 hour live webinars
  • Instruction, correspondence and support from two highly qualified nursing educators with experience in PEOLC
  • Discussion forum
  • Assigned readings with review and discussion
  • CASN Certificate of Successful Completion

*Please note: this course is being offered in English, and registration is limited. The registration fee does not include the cost of accessing articles.