Background: By the middle of this century, approximately 40% of people who will die from
chronic illness are expected to do so in a nursing home. This trend will create challenges for
nursing homes to ensure that staff possess the necessary knowledge and skills to care for dying
residents.
Objective: The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and evaluation of a
comprehensive curriculum called Palliative Care Educational Resource Team (PERT), which
is designed to enhance end-of-life (EOL) abilities of nursing assistants and licensed nurses
working in nursing homes.
Subjects: Sixty-one nursing assistants and 108 licensed nursing staff from 44 facilities have
participated in PERT. Subjects were recruited in three successive cohorts, each targeting a different
geographic area.
Measurements: Program evaluation included multiple tools evaluating participants' knowledge,
skills, and confidence in providing EOL care.
Results: Evaluation of outcomes revealed significant increases in EOL knowledge, self-evaluation
of EOL skills, and supervisors' evaluations of participants' EOL care.
Conclusions: These results show that the PERT Program is an effective means to enhance
the palliative care expertise of nursing home staff. In addition to describing the PERT program
and its evaluation, suggestions for implementing similar programs are included in this
paper.
