ABSTRACT
Doctor of nursing practice-prepared nurses are well suited to provide high-quality palliative care to patients with serious illness and their caregivers. Their rigorous education and expertise prepare them for the complexity often associated with chronic disease and end of life. There are clear and strong recommendations from multiple national organizations supporting palliative care education for nurses and tools available for nurses to implement palliative care into practice. This article is from the perspective of the doctor of nursing practice nurse. It reviews the limited evidence on palliative care integration into the doctor of nursing practice role, the barriers to palliative care education and implementing palliative care into practice, and the potential roles that a doctor of nursing practice palliative care nurse may fill in health care.
Subject(s)
Education, Nursing , Hospice and Palliative Care Nursing , Humans , Palliative Care , Delivery of Health Care , CaregiversABSTRACT
The pneumonia vaccine is the best way to prevent pneumococcal disease and the high cost of readmission for patients and payors. The readmission rate at a skilled nursing facility (SNF) for a patient with a diagnosis of pneumonia was 24%, whereas the vaccination rate at the SNF was only 28%. This finding is significant because patients aged ≥65 years have a 35% reduction in pneumonia influenzas and all-cause mortality with appropriate pneumococcal vaccination. The current initiative sought to increase the pneumococcal vaccine rate at a SNF through implementation of a structured vaccine initiative. After implementation of a pneumococcal vaccination bundle, vaccine uptake increased from 28% to 66%. The success of the pneumococcal vaccination bundle showed that a focused effort using context-specific, evidence-based interventions can increase vaccine uptake. Adapting an evidence-based bundle to fit the needs of the user's context is an important component to the success of vaccination initiatives. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 48(12), 52-56.].
