An end-of-life nursing education consortium (ELNEC) regional approach to integrating primary palliative care in nursing education

An end-of-life nursing education consortium (ELNEC) regional approach to integrating primary palliative care in nursing education
Journal of Professional Nursing; by Toni L Glover, Olga Ehrlich, Andra Davis, Megan Lippe, Carrie L Cormack, Theresa Jizba, Amanda J Kirkpatrick, Susan Meskis; May-June 2025
With the concurrent movement toward competency-based nursing education and the incorporation of Hospice, Palliative, and Supportive Care as one of the four spheres of care in the latest AACN [American Association of Colleges of Nursing] Essentials, nurse educators face a myriad of challenges in incorporating palliative care content into undergraduate and graduate curricula. The challenges include: a lack of faculty expertise in palliative care education; a lack of administrative or faculty support to include primary palliative care content in nursing curricula; a lack of evidence-based teaching strategies on primary palliative care nursing education; and, a lack of funding to support the development of robust, evidence-based strategies to strengthen primary palliative care nursing education. The purpose of this article is to describe an innovative regional approach advancing primary palliative care nursing education. To ensure nursing students are practice-ready, both undergraduate and graduate programs must provide education that builds knowledge and competency in primary palliative nursing care.