Expanding palliative care nursing education in California: the ELNEC Geriatric project

In the past decade, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's 2002 report Means to a Better End: A Report on Dying in America Today and other studies brought attention to deficiencies in care of the dying in the USA. Palliative care's mandate is to promote a 'good death' through expert symptom management and compassionate care that addresses the psychosocial needs and dignity of persons at the end of life. The End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) Geriatric 'train-the-trainer' project was launched in 2007 to increase the knowledge and educational skills of nurses and unlicensed staff providing end-of-life care for older adults in nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, long-term care, and hospices. From 2007 through 2009, 351 California-based nurses and nursing home staff attended one of four ELNEC Geriatric courses. This paper describes programme development, implementation, follow-up evaluations, and examples of participants' use of the ELNEC Geriatric curriculum.