By Darcee Bidgood, RN, CHPCN(c) and Lynne Young, RN, PhD
Palliative care is now widely acknowledged as an essential substantive area for all health care disciplines. Thus, the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN) led a palliative end-of-life care (PEOLC) initiative to guide the educational preparation of undergraduate nurses. CASN convened a task force comprised of nurses from practice and academia who represented diverse regions of Canada.
The CASN PEOLC Task Force developed several drafts of competencies and indicators through wide consultation. Once the competencies were accepted by key stakeholders, a competency document and three amazing resources [broken link] were developed to support the integration of the PEOLC competencies into teaching practice.
The Story of Care video is the most loved and used of these resources. In this video [broken link], “Jim” tells of his encounters with the health care system as he and his wife journey through illness progression. Jim’s touching accounts invite viewers to reflect on such questions as “How do I see this patient… as a disease? As a person?”. We urge you to explore the CASN PEOLC materials and perhaps find ways to use them in your teaching practice. Thus, you will contribute to the mission of providing compassionate, competent care to highly vulnerable Canadians.
Darcee Bidgood is a Project Coordinator at the UVic Centre on Aging. Lynne Young is a Professor and Associate Director of Graduate Education at the School of Nursing.
From the 2013 Spring Communiqué — Palliative Care
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