KittyLoverRN

Hello Fellow Nurses; I am looking to develop a "Learning Needs Assessment Tool" to administer to nurses (RN's and LPN's) who are interested in learning more about End-Of-Life and/or Hospice & Palliative Care. This tool should focus on what information the nurse feels he/she needs to know to provide competent and quality end-of-life care. Anyone have a good link to share and/or have questions to add to this tool that would interest you?? Thanks in advance for your interest and help! KittyLoverRN

Yes, I agree aimee....attendance is optional, but families appreciate it so much when we take the time to attend the visitation and/or funeral.

Doodlemom: The comfort paks are taken into the home upon admission. They are included in our standing medical orders, so when the admit is complete and MD is called for approval of orders (including standing medical orders), the comfort pak is okay to be left in the home. Doing it this way has really cut down on RN visits via on-call....we have a triage system in place and the triage nurses know if patient has a comfort pak or not. She/he is then able to triage the call based on the patient symptoms and the contents of the comfort pak! It's a much better system than we've ever used before!

In response to "aimee"....our nurses bring th comfort paks to the home upon admission...we keep a stock in our office....double locked of course! In response to "nurselearner"....I do not think you can purchase the HP manuals separately.....I believe they are only for those that partner with HP.:behindpc:

Yes, any medication that is related to the "comfort" of the patient would be a hospice covered medication. We started partnering with Hospice Pharmacia (www.hospicepharmacia.com) about 3 years ago. They are a research based (EBP) organization and have developed algorythms for each terminal process and which medications would be covered....or not! They also provide Comfort Paks, which are a god-send. Upon each admission, our nurse takes a Comfort Pak with her....the pak has a 4 day supply of Roxanol, Ativan, Haldol, Compazine PO & PR, Acetaminophen PR, ABHR PR (Ativan, Benadryl, Haldol, Reglan compounded into a suppository) and Levsin. They also provide, upon order Cardiac Paks and Seizure Paks. Our pharmacy bills have decreased by about 30% as Hospice Pharmacia bills us on a per diem basis for each patient on census. The best part is they have helped to standardize our practice between our 3 branch offices and our in-patient residence. They are wonderful....trained, end-of-life pharmacists available 24/7 for consultation. I have never had a situation where they were not more than helpful and knowledgable....and, our census runs almost 300 patients on any given day! Good Luck & check out HP's website....they will also provide a informational packet and visit if you are serious about partnering with them! KittyLoverRN in Michigan