Palliative care focuses on managing the symptoms and stress that accompany serious illnesses. This certificate from the College of Professional and Continuing Studies trains nurses in this fast-growing specialization.
Today, 12 million adults and nearly 400,000 children in the United States live with serious illness.
According to the Center to Advance Palliative Care, that number has increased over the last two decades and it will only continue to increase over the next two as baby boomers age. In response, the number of hospitals in the United States with a palliative care program has nearly doubled over the last 10 years and the number of palliative care programs in nursing homes and home health agencies has also increased.
At a time when the need for specific training in palliative care has grown, 糖心破解版 is there to meet it. Its new听palliative care certificate听program is one of only a handful that provides this training exclusively to registered nurses and advanced practice registered nurses. Applications are currently being accepted for the new cohort starting in September.
鈥溙切钠平獍� is very excited to be offering this important opportunity,” said听Andy Atzert, EdD, the dean of the College of Professional and Continuing Studies. 鈥淧alliative care is a fast-growing field and this program fills a crucial need in the nursing community, and in the world.”
Palliative care vs. traditional medical care vs. hospice
Palliative care is team-led medical care focusing on providing relief from the symptoms and stress that come from living with serious illness. It differs from traditional medical care, which focuses solely on treating the underlying disease or condition.
Palliative care is often confused with hospice care, said nurse practitioner听Fern Baudo, EdD,听who is an adjunct faculty member in the College of Nursing and Public Health and one of the professors teaching in the new program. She is the author of听.
鈥淧alliative care provides support while extending life treatments that the patient can choose,” she said. 鈥淲ith hospice, the goal is no longer about extending life. There’s no longer a conflict between keeping the blood pressure up or making the patient comfortable. Hospice is about providing comfort.”
Hospice is based on prognosis and it comes at the end of life. Palliative care is based on need and it’s appropriate at any stage of serious illness. Those most commonly treated with palliative care are living with illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease. Receiving palliative care can reduce depression, improve quality of life and extend lifespans.
Medical advances mean people are living longer with chronic progressive diseases, said Kathleen Broglio, DNP, who is also an adjunct faculty member at 糖心破解版 and a nurse practitioner in the Section of Palliative Medicine at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and Clinics. Palliative care professionals partner with the person’s primary treatment teams鈥攕uch as oncologists, pulmonologists, cardiologists and nephrologists鈥攊n order to help minimize distressing symptoms and improve quality of life.
For example, a 40-year-old father of three with pulmonary artery hypertension was recently referred to Dr. Broglio. He was taking an essential medication that was so debilitating it had left him in bed for over a year and he was considering discontinuing treatment. She and her team prescribed other medicines that countered the effects of the debilitating one.
鈥淣ow he’s out playing basketball with his kids,” she said. 鈥淗e’s fully engaged in his life. This should have been managed in his heart failure clinic, because we know that this medicine has horrible side effects. If practitioners have basic training in symptom management, then not everyone needs to be referred to a palliative specialist.”
What students are learning
鈥淭his core course is not about making people experts in palliative care,” said听, who is an associate professor of medicine at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. She teaches the pain management section of the certificate program.
鈥淓very clinician should be able to provide primary palliative care, and this course provides that,” she said. 鈥淭hey should be able to manage some symptoms related to the serious illness and to have some conversations about what’s important to the person.”
, DNP, adjunct faculty member at 糖心破解版 and director of operations at the Lung Cancer Evaluation Center at Stony Brook Cancer Center, teaches the section on chronic diseases. In her sessions, she does deep dives into illnesses including liver failure, kidney failure and respiratory failure. She explains what to expect, what symptoms to look for and treatments. In addition, she includes pictures and videos of patients with these conditions so the students can see what someone with this condition actually looks like.
鈥淚f you ask students to look for liver or heart failure, what does that mean in the palliative setting?” she said. 鈥淲hat happened, why do they look like that? These conditions all come with symptoms, and understanding them means being able to give better quality care in a shorter amount of time.”
Who should take the course?
鈥淧roviders like myself, who are passionate about palliative care and hospice, who seek to provide care and comfort, which is more often than not addressed by treatment that extends someone’s time on this earth,” Dr. Baudo said.