Understanding primary palliative nursing education in undergraduate nursing programs.

BACKGROUND: Nurses are the largest segment of health care professionals and often the first one to interact with individuals about their health and illness. Ensuring nurses have the education to care for individuals with serious illness is essential to quality health care. The new AACN Essentials: Competencies for Professional Nursing Education delineates hospice/palliative/supportive care as one of four spheres of nursing care. Surveying undergraduate schools/colleges of nursing in Massachusetts about content pertaining to care of individuals with serious illness provides the foundation for a state strategy to ensure quality primary palliative education for undergraduate nursing students. METHODS: A Massachusetts statewide college/school of nursing survey approach to assessing primary palliative nursing education within undergraduate baccalaureate nursing curricula was performed from June 2020 to December 2020. Because the project was a collaboration with the Deans of the college/school of nursing, the survey identified the programs. RESULTS: Survey results revealed that only a small number of Massachusetts nursing programs are preparing nurses with specific and formal primary palliative nursing education. However, programs are open to support and resources. CONCLUSION: The survey provided information to inform a successful strategy to support primary palliative nursing education within Massachusetts undergraduate baccalaureate nursing curricula. A survey approach can serve as a model for other states.

Hematopoietic Stem-Cell Transplantation in the Resource-Limited Setting: Establishing the First Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit in Bangladesh.

PURPOSE: Treatment of malignant and nonmalignant hematologic diseases with hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) was first described almost 60 years ago, and its use has expanded significantly over the last 20 years. Whereas HSCT has become the standard of care for many patients in developed countries, the significant economic investment, infrastructure, and health care provider training that are required to provide such a service have prohibited it from being widely adopted, particularly in developing countries. METHODS: Over the past two decades, however, efforts to bring HSCT to the developing world have increased, and several institutions have described their efforts to establish such a program. We aim to provide an overview of the current challenges and applications of HSCT in developing countries as well as to describe our experience in developing an HSCT program at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital in Bangladesh via a partnership with health care providers at Massachusetts General Hospital. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: We discuss key steps of the program, including the formation of a collaborative partnership, infrastructure development, human resource capacity building, and financial considerations.

Building Specialized Nursing Practice Capacity in Bangladesh: An Educational Program to Prepare Nurses to Care for Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant Patients in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

In 2012, the Minister of Health and other leaders in the Bangladesh government approached Massachusetts General Hospital to establish the country's first bone marrow transplant program at Dhaka Medical College Hospital to serve the needs of the people of Bangladesh. Stated goals of this collaboration included a broad focus on the care of oncology patients with a specific emphasis on care of patients with hematologic malignancies and of women with gynecologic cancers. The purpose of this article is to describe the international nursing collaboration between Massachusetts General Hospital, Simmons College, the AK Khan Healthcare Trust in Dhaka, and Dhaka Medical College Hospital that was established to share nursing knowledge and to build specialized professional nursing capacities to deliver high-quality cancer care in the public sector. Over the past 3 years, through the educational programs that have been developed within this collaboration-the Enhanced Specialized Nurse Training Program-the Bangladeshi nurses have received continuing professional development based on Western standards of nursing and have been offering nursing care to patients who have undergone chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation. The challenges, opportunities, and outcomes of this international collaboration have been highly rewarding and mutually beneficial.

Energy therapies in oncology nursing.

OBJECTIVES: To review the published research related to the interventions of Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, and Healing Touch representing energy therapies in relation to oncology nursing. DATA SOURCES: Peer-reviewed literature. CONCLUSION: There is growing evidence that energy therapies have a positive effect on symptoms associated with cancer. While there is need for further research, it is clear that an appreciation for the value of research methods beyond the randomized control trial is important. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE: Energy therapies offer additional strategies for oncology nurses providing integrated nursing care to alleviate suffering and symptom distress of patients with cancer.

Enhancing end-of-life care with dignity: characterizing hospice nursing in Romania.

AIMS: The purpose of this research was to characterize the nursing actions practiced by Romanian nurses affiliated with Hospices of Hope that promote dignified dying and explore needs to promote a more dignified death. METHODS: A survey method used the International Classification for Nursing Practice dignified dying survey. A convenience sample of 43 hospice nurses responded. Descriptive statistics, t-tests and content analysis were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Characteristics that promoted dignified dying included the use of a formal, iterative process of assessment, interventions that supported pain and symptom management, and spiritual comfort at the end of life. Participants described family-centered hospice care that integrated Christian orthodox tradition that transformed patients as death approached. CONCLUSION: Dignity for terminally ill Romanian will be enhanced as the nurses implement these interventions. Awareness of cultural and spiritual differences concerning end of life will facilitate dialogue among nurse scientists.

Integrating psychosocial skills into a medical-surgical curriculum in a baccalaureate nursing program.

With the increasing acuity levels of hospitalized patients, faculty members struggle with accessing clinical sites for undergraduate students. Teaching students how to interact with patients and their families can often take second place to attending to the many needs and safety issues in caring for acutely ill individuals, particularly in medical-surgical settings. Over the past several years, the psychiatric and medical-surgical faculty members in the nursing department of a college in Boston have struggled with how best to prepare students for both the physical and psychosocial aspects of care. In this article, the evolution of our psychiatric consultation-liaison model is discussed.