Project approach
International research shows that an innovative, attractive way of providing experiential and immersive training, with educators who have the appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes to deal with something as complex as palliative care is needed. Moreover, it is widely recognised that palliative care topics are not sufficiently included in most if not all undergraduate nursing curricula.
Within this context, the NursEduPal@Euro project was conceived.
The NursEduPal@Euro project consists of four phases during which nine Intellectual Outputs will be produced
Setting the standard
- Define the core competencies in palliative care that bachelor degree nurses need to achieve during their educational program through nominal group inquiries in Austria, Belgium, Finland, and Romania
- Consult the working force and experts to get feedback on the list of European core competencies
- Write an endorsed report specifying the defined competencies (Intellectual Output 1)
Outcome: A report that will be widely disseminated so that academic centres worldwide can utilise it as a basis for the implementation of innovative training in palliative care competencies.
Development of educational tools
- Development of cases and stories (Intellectual Output 0), simulation cases (Intellectual Output 2), gamification (Intellectual Output 4), and graphic novels (Intellectual Output 8) to transfer the palliative care competencies
- Development of an e-learning tutorial for educators on how to make your own educational simulation instruction material to teach palliative care nursing (Intellectual Output 3)
- Establish procedures for clinical reasoning and ethical deliberation to guide the students through real-life cases occurring within a palliative setting (Intellectual Output 6)
- Piloting of the developed tools in the partner universities
- Train educators how to use and implement the tools in their teaching strategies for nursing education
Outcome: The use of these resources and the introduction of these new methodologies, as an alternative to traditional bed-side training, will create new learning opportunities, adapted to the needs of future nurses.
A European matrix
- Combine the core competencies and the learning tools into a European matrix as a toolkit for educators in palliative care to transfer knowledge, skills and attitudes (Intellectual Output 7)
- Train teachers in using the matrix to improve their competency and enhance the quality of their palliative care teaching
Outcome: The implementation of the European matrix will support educators to develop more attractive and tailored courses to strengthen the acquisition of palliative care skills by their students.
A European network of palliative care educators
- Connect educators in palliative care in a European network where experiences, working methods and challenges can be exchanged and best practices to improve teaching can be explored
- Present the Virtual Showroom in which the tools developed in the project are freely accessible to the community (Intellectual Output 5)
Outcome: Sustainable national and international connections between educators in palliative care with access to innovative teaching materials.
Overall outcome of NursEduPal@Euro
We anticipate that over time the European Core Competencies Palliative Care report and the European Matrix for Palliative Care Education will strengthen the competency of educators, significantly contributing to the education of bachelor degree nurses, and ultimately impacting on the palliative care delivered by nurses to their patients.