Date of Award
Spring 4-9-2021
Document Type
Scholarly Project
Degree Name
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Department
Nursing
First Advisor
Sue Bingham, PhD, RN
Second Advisor
Joseph Tadeo DNP, MPH, RN, CNS
Abstract
Practice Problem: In the absence of end-of-life (EOL) comfort care guidelines, the nurses in a medical-surgical unit are apprehensive about caring for patients in their active stage of dying, which leads to abandoning the values of holistic and patient-centered care.
PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was: "How do acute care bedside nurses (P) who utilize the evidence-based comfort care guidelines (I) compare to not using the evidence-based guidelines (C) perceive their confidence in their capability to provide holistic and patient-centered care (O) during the active onset of the patient's end-of-life stage (T)?"
Evidence: The literature indicated that accessible, evidence-based EOL comfort care guidelines could help nurses to enhance their confidence and skills to deliver holistic and patient-centered care at the bedside for actively dying patients.
Intervention: The nurses identified primary stressors for a dying patient within 24 hours of the patient deemed on EOL stage using a Patient Dignity Inventory Tool as an embedded part of EOL comfort care guidelines. The nurses initiated individualized plans of care based on the stressors identified, which upheld holistic and patient-centered EOL care concepts.
Outcome: Pre-and post-EOL intervention survey data attested that having accessible EOL comfort care guidelines was valuable for nurses in attaining more confidence in providing patient-centered and holistic care at the bedside for the actively dying patient.
Conclusion: Accessible, standardized, evidence-based EOL comfort care guidelines fostered the nurses' ability to provide care to patients who were actively dying, embracing the core concepts of holistic and patient-centered care.
Recommended Citation
Maranan, M. (2021). Evidence-Based End-of-Life Comfort Care Guidelines. [Doctoral project, University of St Augustine for Health Sciences]. SOAR @ USA: Student Scholarly Projects Collection. https://doi.org/10.46409/sr.RCRN7065
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Scholarly project submitted to the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice.