COURSE INFORMATION
This CE course provides comprehensive instruction on Physical Health: Life-Threatening Diseases and Symptom Management. Students will study the most common conditions seen in a palliative care setting as well as the symptoms that occur most often. Students will learn the appropriate management of end of life symptoms. These topics include, but are not limited to: cancer, end stage heart, renal or liver disease, and treatment of pain, dyspnea, and psychological symptoms associated with these conditions This course is a continuation of PC 510 Palliative Care: Quality Care at the End of Life I, will build upon the information presented in that course.
Course Code: PC 520. Contact hours of education: 45.
Instructor/Course Author: Amy McMillan MSN, RN, CHPN, CNE
Masters of Science in Nursing Education, Registered Nurse, Certified Hospice and Palliative Care Nurse, Certified Nurse Educator
Amy has been a Registered Nurse for over 15 years with experience in mental health, neurology, home care, as well as hospice and palliative care. She is a member of the Hospice and Palliative Care Credentialing Situational Judgement Exercise Committee. This committee constructs realistic palliative and hospice scenarios for nurses working on their hospice and palliative care nursing certification. She also regularly volunteers for the National Council of State Boards of Nursing by writing, editing, and fact checking new questions for the NCLEX – RN and NCLEX – PN exams. She has written educational material including webinars, lectures, patient simulations, and exam items on end of life care and case management. She has taught at the associate’s and bachelor’s degree levels of nursing education in the classroom, in the clinical setting, and online. She continues to work with hospice and palliative care patients and their families in a home care setting. She also contracts for authoring nursing educational material, including this course.
Link to Resume: access here
TEXTBOOK: There is one (1) required textbook for this course.
Palliative Care Nursing: Quality Care to the End of Life (5th Edition), Edited by: Marianne Matzo and Deborah Witt Sherman
Link to Purchase on Amazon.com: click here
RECOMMENDED READING:
Death, Society, and Human Experience (13th Edition), by Robert Kastenbaum, Christopher M. Moreman
Link to Purchase on Amazon.com: click here
TIME FRAME: You are allotted two years from the date of enrollment, to complete all of the four (4) courses in the Grief Support Group Certified Specialist continuing education program. There are no set time-frames, other than the two year allotted time. If you do not complete the courses within the two-year time-frame, you will be removed from the course and an “incomplete” will be recorded for you in our records. Also, if you would like to complete the courses after this two-year expiration time, you would need to register and pay the course tuition fee again.
GRADING: You must achieve a passing score of at least 70% to complete this course and receive the 45 hours of awarded continuing education credit. There are no letter grades assigned. You will receive notice of your total % score. Those who score below the minimum of 70% will be contacted by the American Academy of Grief Counseling and options for completing additional course work to achieve a passing score, will be presented.
BOARD APPROVALS: The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is an Approved Provider for Continuing Education by the South Carolina Professional Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists and Psycho-Educational Specialists licensing board, Provider # 4637.
AIHCP is an approved provider of continuing education by the American Institute of Health Care Professionals (The Provider) is approved by the California Board of Registered Nurses, Provider number # CEP 15595 for 45 Contact Hours. Access information
This course, which is approved by the Florida State Board Of Nursing (CE Provider # 50-11975) also has the following Board of Nursing Approvals, for 45 contact hours of CE
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the Arkansas Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the Georgia Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the South Carolina Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the West Virginia Board of Examiners for Professional Registered Nurses. CE Provider # 50-11975.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the New Mexico Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
Course Refund & AIHCP Policies: access here
ONLINE CLASSROOM RESOURCES AND TOOLS
* Examination Access: there is link to take you right to the online examination program where you can print out your examination and work with it. All examinations are formatted as “open book” tests. When you are ready, you can access the exam program at anytime and click in your responses to the questions. Full information is provided in the online classrooms.
* Student Resource Center: there is a link for access to a web page “Student Resource Center.” The Resource Center provides for easy access to all of our policies/procedures and additional information regarding applying for certification. We also have many links to many outside reference sites, such as online libraries that you may freely access.
* Online Evaluation: there is a link in the classroom where you may access the course evaluation. All students completing a course, must, without exception, complete the course evaluation.
* Faculty Access Information: you will have access to your instructor’s online resume/biography, as well as your instructor’s specific contact information.
* Additional Learning Materials: some faculty have prepared additional “readings” and /or brief lecture notes to enhance your experience. All of these are available in the online classrooms.
COURSE OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Understand cancer symptoms and side effects related to the treatments required interprofessional care
- Discuss the four most common types of cancer and the most effective modes of treatment
- Understand the PPS scale and how it is used to determine a patient’s level of functioning
- Explain why the difficulty in predicting illness trajectory is more difficult in CHF end of life patients
- Describe the differences between systolic and diastolic heart failure and the mechanisms for development for each of them
- List medications commonly prescribed for HF and how they benefit the patient
- List medications that could exacerbate HF symptoms.
- Understand the etiologies and treatment modalities for COPD
- Discuss the use of morphine to treat respiratory distress in patients with COPD
- Explain the importance of smoking cessation to improve COPD progression
- Describe irreversible brain death is determined
- Discuss how palliative care can benefit a patient with a chronic neurological disorder
- Describe the legal questions that can accompany the use of feeding tubes in patients with neurological disorders
- Discuss how palliative care can benefit a patient with ESRD and/or on KRT
- Understand the different causes of cirrhosis and the associated symptoms
- Reflect and explore your assumptions regarding patients with ESLD and the possible association with using drugs or alcohol
- Determine the differences between HIV and AIDS
- Describe symptoms common in patients with HIV/AIDS and methods to help control these symptoms
- Understand the importance of adequate pain control and the end of life and how to recognize and treat pain for all patients.
- Recognize the barriers that can make pain control difficult to achieve
- Explain what is meant by “the patient is the expert on their pain”
- Understand the difference between “tolerance”, “physical dependence” and “psychological dependence” as it relates to opioid pain medication
- Explain the WHO analgesic ladder
- Explain the difference between NSAIDs and Opioids for pain control
- Understand the benefits of co-analgesic medications
- Describe interventions for physical, sensory, and affective symptoms associated with dyspnea
- Discuss the information needed to perform a complete assessment of dyspnea
- Understand the various pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments for dyspnea
- Discuss anxiety and depression at the end of life, along with potential treatments
- Recognize the difficulties of diagnosing depression in children and older adults
- Recognize the signs and symptoms that can be associated with suicidal thinking, and what interventions are appropriate for a suicidal patient
- Understand the causes and treatments for delirium
- Explain the differences between delirium, dementia, and depression
- Describe symptoms that are consistent with a patient having PTSD
- Describe symptoms and treatments for GI symptoms including anorexia, cachexia, nausea, vomiting, dysphagia, constipation, bowel obstruction, diarrhea, ascites, and xerostomia
- Explain which causes of fatigue are most appropriate to address in a patient at the end of life
- Understand the goals of wound care for patients at the end of life
- Describe the dying process and discussions that should happen with patient’s families when the patient is dying