Extensive Options for Nursing Educators Teaching End-of-Life Care

SEATTLE—A new CD-Rom provides a wide range of flexible, thorough and authoritative materials on end-of-life care. Nursing educators can adapt these materials to the needs of their programs and students and fill a serious gap in the curricula of many nursing schools, reported Diana J. Wilkie, PhD, RN, professor and pain management specialist at the University of Washington School of Nursing in Seattle.

The CD-Rom, known as the Tool-Kit for Nursing Excellence at End-of-Life Transition (TNEEL), was a collaborative effort by several experts in end-of-life care. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation presented a copy of TNEEL free of charge to 1,236 academic nursing programs, as well as to 6,000 clinical agencies. Educators can then use and modify the material as they wish without permission for educational purposes, Dr. Wilkie said.

Because of the TNEEL’s broad scope, depth of resources, and flexibility of format, she expects educators to use it in a wide range of programs and approaches and to infuse end-of-life concepts into the entire nursing curriculum. Any other use requires express permission of the copyright owners.

Core Contents

Six topics central to end-of-life care form the core of TNEEL’s contents:

• management and assessment of symptoms including pain;

• legal and ethical issues;

• communications and relationships;

• bereavement and grief;

• hope, well-being and spiritual needs; and

• the impact of end-of-life care on patients and families.

For each topic, teaching materials and resources are presented in a variety of forms, and faculty members can download them onto their own computers and produce paper copies and PowerPoint slides. Case studies appear on 56 video clips, while 184 audio clips present communication techniques. Other features of the CD-Rom include search, glossary, and help capabilities as well as a tutorial in using TNEEL.

The toolkits are offered at cost of shipping, handling, and overhead. Orders can be placed at http://tneel.washington.edu/.