About the Book

Nursing Care at the End of Life: What Every Clinician Should Know should be an essential component of the basic educational preparation for the professional registered nurse student. Recent studies show that only one in four nurses feel confident in caring for dying patients and their families and less than 2% of overall content in nursing textbooks is related to end-of-life care. Despite the tremendous growth in palliative and end-of-life care programs across the country, very few nursing education programs provide adequate education on this topic for future nurses. The purpose of this textbook is to provide an in-depth look at death and dying in this country including the vital role of the nurse in assisting patients and families along the journey towards the end of life. There is an emphasis throughout the book on the simple, yet understated value of effective interpersonal communication between the patient and clinician. The text provides a basic foundation of death and dying, including a brief historical examination of some main conceptual models associated with how patients cope with impending loss. An overview of illness trajectories and models of care, such as hospice and palliative care, are discussed. Lastly, the latest evidence based approaches for pain and symptom management, ethical concerns, cultural considerations, care at the time of death, and grief/bereavement are examined. The goal of this text is to foster the necessary skills for nurses to provide compassionate care to individuals who are nearing the end of life and families who are or have experienced the loss of a loved one. Every chapter contains a “What You Should Know” section which highlights and reinforces the main message nurses should know when caring for their patient.

About Open SUNY Textbooks

Open SUNY Textbooks is an open access textbook publishing initiative established by State University of New York libraries and supported by SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grants. This initiative publishes high-quality, cost-effective course resources by engaging faculty as authors and peer-reviewers, and libraries as publishing service and infrastructure.

The pilot launched in 2012, providing an editorial framework and service to authors, students and faculty, and establishing a community of practice among libraries.

Participating libraries in the 2012-2013 pilot include SUNY Geneseo, College at Brockport, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, SUNY Fredonia, Upstate Medical University, and University at Buffalo, with support from other SUNY libraries and SUNY Press.

To date, the project has published 11 open textbooks. More information can be found at http://textbooks.opensuny.org.

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Nursing Care at the End of Life Copyright © 2015 by Susan E. Lowey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.