American Academy of Nursing Expert Panel consensus statement on nursing's roles in ensuring universal palliative care access.

The purpose of this consensus paper was to convene leaders and scholars from eight Expert Panels of the American Academy of Nursing and provide recommendations to advance nursing's roles and responsibility to ensure universal access to palliative care. Part I of this consensus paper herein provides the rationale and background to support the policy, education, research, and clinical practice recommendations put forward in Part II. On behalf of the Academy, the evidence-based recommendations will guide nurses, policy makers, government representatives, professional associations, and interdisciplinary and community partners to integrate palliative nursing services across health and social care settings. The consensus paper's 43 authors represent eight countries (Australia, Canada, England, Kenya, Lebanon, Liberia, South Africa, United States of America) and extensive international health experience, thus providing a global context for the subject matter. The authors recommend greater investments in palliative nursing education and nurse-led research, nurse engagement in policy making, enhanced intersectoral partnerships with nursing, and an increased profile and visibility of palliative nurses worldwide. By enacting these recommendations, nurses working in all settings can assume leading roles in delivering high-quality palliative care globally, particularly for minoritized, marginalized, and other at-risk populations.

Pilot study of the breast cancer experiences of African American women with a family history of breast cancer: implications for nursing practice.

Experts in the area of breast cancer detection and control recommend that women at increased risk discuss their risk status and risk management with their health care providers. In spite of the excessive breast cancer burden borne by African American women, little attention has been given to studying breast cancer risk communication and/or breast cancer risk management in this at-risk population group. This report summarizes the outcomes of a study undertaken to explore the degree to which breast cancer, breast cancer risk, and breast cancer risk management were discussed by African American women and their health care providers Targeted for inclusion in the study were African American women who had a first degree relative or multiple second degree relatives that had been diagnosed with pre-menopausal breast cancer. Of particular interest was the extent to which African American women with a family history of breast cancer perceived themselves to be at risk for developing breast cancer and the extent to which they discussed their family history, their breast cancer risk, and, breast cancer risk management with their providers.