Analysis of palliative care content in nursing textbooks

Overall, this study demonstrates significant deficiencies in end-of-life care content in nursing textbooks. Defining palliative care, quality of life at the end of life, and issues of policy, ethics, and law are the foundation of end-of-life care. Analysis of these topics revealed a need to clarify concepts and to apply them within the context of end-of-life care. The analysis also demonstrated a need to transfer findings from palliative care research and concepts from hospice into basic education. In March 1999 the investigators convened a conference in New York in collaboration with a group of medical investigators analyzing EOL content in medical textbooks. The conference was also attended by publishers, editors, and authors of textbooks. The investigators were very encouraged by their interest in and commitment to correcting any weaknesses in their books. The investigators provided them with specific recommendations for improvement and resources for locating both appropriate content and authors with palliative care expertise. These resources are also made available on the City of Hope Pain Resource Center Web site (http:@mayday.coh.org). Achieving the overall project goal of strengthened nursing education in end-of-life care will be reached through a variety of measures. Improving textbooks is but one important step. The various disciplines involved in palliative care can contribute to this project by working in collaboration with textbook publishers.