Dear Students

Please listen to this quick message I have for you.
I have enjoyed these five weeks very much.  While you were learning about the role of the RN in end-of-life care, I was learning how to use technology to present information and encourage critical thinking.  Before this course, I was able to check my email, put together a pretty decent power point presentation, search the Internet for reliable information, and watch You Tube videos.  Now I can make a blog, embed HTML code in the blog, and add videos, pictures, and links to Internet sites.  I hope you understand how amazing this technology is.  I know you have probably grown up with it being normal, but I was taught with lectures, film strips, dittos, and what was available in the course text book.  You have the entire world available to you!  Take a look at this video about the speed that technology is advancing!

I would encourage you to be open-minded and curious about life and learning.  Explore and enjoy every day.  Here are a few web sites that you may find useful when completing assignments for school.

Voki

Glogster

Prezi

It has been my pleasure to spend this time with you.  Please feel free to contact me through the school web site or email system if I can ever help you with anything.  God bless you on your journey.

Week 4 - The Interdisciplinary Team

 Please begin this week by watching this power point presentation about the role of the interdisciplinary team in end-of-life care.   Continue to explore the interdisciplinary team by viewing this site and watching the video.  This site briefly discusses the services provided by each role on the team.  Feel free to explore this site, but please specifically look at 'who are the members of the hospice team?'.  While you are viewing this weeks resources, please pay attention to the different roles included in the interdisciplinary team. Do you agree that each role is necessary? Why or why not? Are there any roles missing? How does the combination of roles in the team provide holistic care to the patient and family?  What is the role of the RN in the interdisciplinary team?  Please also comment on how you would feel as the RN on the interdisciplinary team and how you see yourself working with the other members to care for the patient and family.

Week 3 - Managing Symptoms

Now that we have had a few weeks of clinical time at the Hospice In-Patient Unit (HIPU), you have all seen symptoms that commonly happen when someone is dying. Many symptoms are physical, but symptoms can also be emotional, mental, or spiritual. Patients nearing the end of life should be as comfortable as possible, which means the nurse must know how to recognize and treat many possible symptoms. View this interactive presentation and pring the certificate at the end to turn in at our next clinical. Please read about the symptoms and care that can be provided here. Have your patients at clinical had any of these symptoms? How has the staff at the HIPU managed these symptoms? Did the patient experience relief? Please visit this web site and choose a symptom that one of your patients has experienced. Follow the link for the symptom. Along with answering the previous questions in your post, please include the symptom you chose, the definition, the cause(s), and how it can be managed.

Week 2 - The Hard Discussions

As discussed in class this week, talking with patients and their families about end-of-life care and advance care planning can be difficult discussions. Rarely are the patients and families informed and resolved about what care they want and do not want in their final days enough to cover the necessary information in one conversation. Many times this is the first time these issues have been talked about in a family. What information would you want to know and have on hand for these conversations? What questions would you ask? How would you handle differences in opinion? Who needs to be included in the conversation? Please review the information provided by the Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation on planning advance care discussions. Please also review this study on the effect of advance care planning on end-of-life care. These resources will prepare you for the webinar we will be watching in class next week on advance care planning. Please arrive 10 minutes early to the lecture hall in order to be settled and ready promptly at 1:00.

Please reflect on and answer the above questions after you read the resources and before the webinar. We will be discussing as a class how the webinar added to or changed your feelings about how to approach this delicate but necessary topic.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Welcome

Welcome to 'The Nurse's Role in End-of-Life' blog. This blog will be used with other course content and activities to prepare you professionally and personally to manage dying patients and their families. Weekly responses should be at least 250 words long and show personal insight along with understanding of course content. Each original response must also contain a photograph, song, article, or web site that relates to your response. Responses to other student postings are mandatory. Please respond to at least three other students throughout the week. Try to choose different students each week in order to encourage group unity and build relationships. The instructor will comment on the first post from each student each week.

Week 1 - Managing Death and Dying

While death may be more common in certain settings such as the ICU, the emergency room, or the nursing home, the possibility exists that a nurse can encounter death and dying in any professional setting. Death is a normal part of life, but our society does not usually discuss it until forced to do so. Discovering your own personal feelings and values is the first step to becoming comfortable with respecting the feelings and values of others. The activities for this week's blog include watching this video showing a simulation of a patient death, and reading this article. While you are exploring these activities, place yourself in the roles of each person in the video and articles. What roles are you comfortable in? What roles are you uncomfortable in? A nurse is part of an interdisciplinary team. What resources does the nurse use in the simulation experience? Are there any other members of the interdisciplinary team that would be helpful to the patient and his wife? In your response, please also address the following questions. How do you currently feel about death and dying? Do you use the words "dead" and "died", or do you choose words like "passed" or "expired" when speaking to others? Have you experienced the death(s) of anyone close to you? How do you feel this has impacted your ability to provide holistic care to dying patients and their families?