Implications of palliative care education amongst critical care nurses and applicable screening criteria for consultation

Paiten Rask, College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University

Abstract

Background:
Palliative care is underutilized and/or consulted too late in the patient stay to provide optimal benefits to patients and families. There is a gap in nursing knowledge and confidence surrounding the topic of palliative care and the ability to advocate for specialty involvement for patients.

Objectives:
This project's purpose is to educate registered nurses in critical care about palliative care and introduce the idea of an objective palliative care screening tool. The project involved implementation of pre and post-test analysis of knowledge and confidence following a presentation of educational content. The content also included mock patient scenarios that require the utilization of an objective palliative care screening tool provided to decipher if the patient would meet criteria for consultation.

Methods:
Quality Improvement

Results:
Twelve participants completed the pre- and post-test. The pre and post-test comprised 15 identical knowledge questions, and the average score increased from 68.3% to 82.2%, respectively. There were also five identical confidence questions on both tests based on a Likert scale 1-5, and there was an increase in total mean score from 17.5 to 21.67, respectively. There was statistical significance at an alpha set at < 0.03 for both knowledge and confidence questions.

Conclusions:
Palliative care education amongst critical care nurses increases knowledge and confidence to advocate for specialty care involvement.