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Advanced Practice Palliative Nursing is the first text devoted to advanced practice nursing care of seriously ill and dying patients and their families. This comprehensive work addresses all aspects of palliative care, including patients’ and families’ physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs. Chapters cover the history and role of advanced practice palliative nursing, settings where advanced practice registered nurses deliver palliative care, the role and function of the palliative advanced practice registered nurse, advanced pain and symptom management, the importance of communication in palliative nursing, special populations needing a palliative care focus, pediatric palliative care, spiritual and existential issues, reimbursement, and nursing leadership on palliative care teams. Each chapter contains case examples supported by evidence based practice to ensure the highest quality of care. The text is written by leaders in the field, including authors who have pioneered the role of advanced practice registered nurses in palliative care. This volume offers advanced practice content and practical resources for clinical practice across all settings of care and encompassing all ages, from pediatrics to geriatrics.Less

Skillful nursing care during the final hours of life can bring comfort and quality, not only to the patient but also to the patient’s loved ones who are attending the death. Symptom burden can increase during this time, and knowledgeable assessment and management are essential to providing a peaceful death. Common concerns during this time include delirium, dyspnea, death rattle, and cough. Urgent syndromes, such as superior vena cava obstruction, pleural effusion, pericardial effusion, hemoptysis, spinal cord compression, and hypercalcemia, require expert care. Although in most cases symptoms can be effectively managed, there are situations in which, despite aggressive management, symptoms remain uncontrolled. In these rare incidents of refractory symptoms, palliative sedation may be warranted. The goal of this therapy is to provide relief, not to hasten death. Finally, although assistive devices, such as mechanical ventilation, dialysis, and cardiac devices, replace failing organs, extend life, and improve quality of life by relieving symptom distress, there are times when the burden of these treatments exceeds the benefits. As a consequence, when the patient is near death or unresponsive, decisions may be made to cease these therapies. Palliative care, including expert nursing care along with an interdisciplinary team, is needed to provide a safe and comfortable experience during these final hours.Less

Through an exploration of the ethical nature of nursing, Caring Matters Most asserts that the act of nursing itself embodies goodness. Nurses can develop this goodness, or moral character, in themselves by cultivating five habits: trustworthiness, imagination, beauty, space, and presence. Practicing these habits will sustain nurses in their everyday work. The habit of trustworthiness can help nurses to meet the demands of the workplace. The habit of imagination is a counterbalance to the threat of automation, and the habit of beauty is a way for nurses to be good to themselves amid the daily difficulties the tasks of nursing present. The habit of space is a remedy to the incivilities that arise within the nursing community. The habit of presence encourages nurses to be grateful, and in turn, gratefulness puts nurses in the presence of the good of nursing. Ultimately, Caring Matters Most offers a vision of the good society that the work of nursing seeks to create—for the community of nurses and for the world.Less

The Clinical Pocket Guide to Advanced Practice Palliative Nursing is a companion guide to Advanced Practice Palliative Nursing, the first text devoted to advanced practice nursing care of the seriously ill and dying. Each chapter of this pocket guide presents point-of-care guidance on palliative care issues for quick reference in daily practice. Edited by leaders in the field, this handbook provides consistency in the nursing process from assessment to management and evaluation of symptoms and various clinical situations. The Clinical Pocket Guide to Advanced Practice Palliative Nursing contains clinical pearls developed from the textbook and practical tools on pain and symptom assessment, functional status, and communication, making it an ideal resource for practicing advanced practice nurses.Less

Effective palliative care that rests on a sound ethical foundation requires ongoing discussions about patient and family values and preferences. This is especially important when addressing care at end-of-life including artificial nutrition and hydration, withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies and palliative sedation as well as requests for assistance in hastening death. The eighth volume in the HPNA Palliative Nursing Manuals series, Legal and Ethical Aspects of Palliative Care, provides an overview of critical communication skills and formal organizational mechanisms, such as ethics committees and interdisciplinary rounds, required for decisions in ethical dilemmas which respect diversity in the views of colleagues, as well as patients. The content of the concise, clinically focused volumes in the HPNA Palliative Nursing Manuals series is one resource for nurses preparing for specialty certification exams and provides a quick-reference in daily practice.Less

This new edition of the Oxford Handbook of Cardiac Nursing includes expanded information on prevention of cardiovascular disease and heart disease in pregnancy, as well as the latest resuscitation guidelines, protocols, and clinical information. It covers assessment, investigation, treatment, rehabilitation, and pharmacological interventions, and new illustrations and diagrams have been added throughout to aid clarity of information. Although a large part of it focuses on caring for patients with coronary heart disease, many other cardiovascular problems, such as valvular heart disease, congenital heart disease, and cardiomyopathies are covered. Designed to be used on the ward, in the community, and for studying and revision, it contains expert guidance, written by experienced nurses and teachers. This resource is specifically laid out to enable quick access to precise, targeted information, and covers the vast majority of clinical scenarios.Less

An indispensable clinical guide, this resource provides a wealth of useful information on the aetiology of kidney disease, and aids with decision-making from initial assessment and diagnosis, through to the available treatments. Taking a multi-professional approach to the care and management of patients with kidney disease, the Oxford Handbook of Renal Nursing is an essential tool for all renal nurses, studying and practising, as well as a valuable resource for all those who work in renal care.Less

The Oxford Textbook of Palliative Nursing is a comprehensive textbook on the art and science of palliative care nursing. Including new chapters on advance care planning, organ donation, self-care, global palliative care, and the ethos of palliative nursing, each chapter is rich with tables and figures, case examples for improved learning, and a strong evidence-based practice to support the highest quality of care. The book offers a valuable and practical resource for students and clinicians across all settings of care. Developed with the intention of emphasizing the need to extend palliative care beyond the specialty to be integrated in all settings and by all clinicians caring for the seriously ill, this new edition will continue to serve as the cornerstone of palliative care education. The content is relevant for specialty hospice agencies and palliative care programs, as well as generalist knowledge for schools of nursing, oncology, critical care, and pediatric.Less

Palliative care is an essential element of our health care system and becoming increasingly significant amidst an aging society and organizations struggling to provide both compassionate and cost effective care. Palliative care is also characterized by a strong interdisciplinary approach. Nurses are at the center of the palliative care team across settings and populations. This third volume in the HPNA Palliative Nursing Manuals series provides an overview of the principles of symptom assessment and management for symptoms, including fatigue, anorexia and cachexia, artificial nutrition and hydration, urinary tract disorders, lymphedema, skin disorders such as pressure ulcers, wounds, fistulas, and stomas, pruritus, fever, sweats, neurological disorders, anxiety and depression, and insomnia. The content will help prepare nurses for certification exams as well as provide quick-reference in daily practice. Plentiful tables, figures, and practical tools such as assessment instruments, pharmacology tables, and patient teaching points are also included.Less

The fifth volume in the HPNA Palliative Nursing Manuals is focused on the social aspects of care. Illness is incorporated into every aspect of family life, and there is a mutual influence between illness and the family. Family and illness can be seen as a biopsychosocial model—the fit between family strengths and vulnerabilities in relation to the psychosocial demands over time of the illness. High caregiver burden and financial stress and fatigue are common. The family is living in the face of actual and anticipatory losses associated with the illness, disability (cognitive and physical), suffering, and eventual death. The family needs information on what to expect, and support and encouragement on how to care for themselves, as they navigate a progressive terminal illness. In this way they can, in turn, take care of their loved one. The chapters in this volume provide information on how to support families in palliative care; cultural considerations important in end-of-life care; sexuality and the impact of illness; planning for the actual death; and bereavement. These are part of the social aspects of palliative care.Less

The first volume in the HPNA Palliative Nursing Series, this online resource provides an overview of palliative nursing care, reviews National Consensus Project guidelines, and offers tools for initiating and maintaining palliative care programs. The content of the concise, clinically-focused volumes in the HPNA series prepares nurses for certification exams as well as quick-reference in daily practice. Plentiful tables, figures, and practical tools such as assessment instruments, pharmacology tables, and patient teaching points make these guides useful resources for nurses.Less

Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is a technique that delivers mild electrical currents across the intact surface of the skin to reduce pain. TENS is used by practitioners throughout the world to manage painful conditions and equipment can be purchased by the general public so that they can self-administer treatment. There are thousands of experimental and clinical research studies published on TENS and related techniques yet there is uncertainty about the best way to administer TENS in clinical practice, because currents used during TENS can be administered in a variety of ways and the findings of research studies have been inconclusive. This resource provides guidance on how best to use TENS based on an evaluation of current research evidence. It covers what TENS is, how it works, and safe and appropriate clinical techniques for many conditions including chronic low back pain, osteoarthritis and cancer pain. It also offers solutions to the problems faced by researchers when trying to design clinical trials on TENS.Less