Palliative Care: Does My Patient Need It?

Palliative Care: Does My Patient Need It? is organized by HonorHealth.

Dates:
Release Date: 11/30/2018
Review Date: 06/11/2020
Expiration Date: 08/22/2021

Credit Statement:
HonorHealth designates this enduring material activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

ANCC: Professional Nursing Education is an approved provider of continuing education by the Western Multi-State Division, an accredited approver of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. This program has been approved for 1.0 CEUs.

Program description:
Palliative care focuses on maximizing quality of life in patients with serious illness, by relieving pain and other symptoms and the stress on patients and families, irrespective of age, prognosis and location. Over the past decade, there has been a significant improvement in the provision of this type of care nationwide, with 90% of hospitals with 300+ beds having palliative care teams. There is also now recognition of the importance of providing palliative care in the community and ambulatory settings, with a notable increase in such programs over the past couple of years. Access to and application of palliative care however, remains quite variable and inconsistent for patients who would benefit from this type of care. An identified gap in the current state of practice, is an under developed knowledge base and competence in provision of basic palliative care by the healthcare team, across the continuum. It is encouraging to note that 96% of teaching hospitals now have palliative care teams, which should hopefully increase the likelihood of the next generation of clinicians receiving appropriate training.

Learning objectives:
At the conclusion of this activity, the learner should be able to:
• Explain why Palliative Care is relevant to seriously ill patients
• Identify which patients may benefit from Palliative Care
• Recognize when to present Palliative care as an option to patients
• Identify in which settings Palliative care can be provided