How Do RNs View Palliative Care for Hospitalized Older Adults? What a Study Reveals

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

“I think [palliative care is] also for that portion of the population that falls in the crack, in terms of, they’re not quite ready for the hospice thing but they’re not really ready for new aggressive chemo or anything else. … They’re in that vague no man’s land of where they fit in terms of services.”—study participant

Timely referral to palliative care could potentially benefit many seriously ill, hospitalized older adults. Such care not only offers relief from disease symptoms, but also helps patients and families to reach personal goals, reconcile conflicts, and extract meaning from their varied experiences. Yet those who might benefit are less likely to receive such care if their providers are unclear about the concept and how it differs from hospice care.

Table 5. Five Main Thematic Categories with Associated Subcategories Table 5. Five Main Thematic Categories with Associated Subcategories

To learn more about how staff nurses understand and manage palliative care, nurse researcher Maureen O’Shea decided to conduct an exploratory study. She reports on the findings in this month’s CE–Original Research feature, “Staff Nurses’ Perceptions Regarding Palliative Care for Hospitalized Older Adults.”

Here’s a quick overview. […]