As end-of-life care needs increase, so does the need to ensure nursing competency in such care. This publication addresses the specifics of both the general and advanced practice levels of these linked specialties. Hospice and palliative nurses provide a full range of services (including physical, psychosocial, and spiritual/existential care) in a variety of settings. This publication applies to all hospice and palliative nurses who provide care and advocacy to patients and their families in their experience of life-limiting progressive illness, dying, death, and bereavement. Its essay on the scope of such practice summarizes its development and status and lends context to its standards of care and standards of professional practice and their respective measurement criteria. All in all, a fundamental document for a critical nursing practice specialty. Book jacket.

Co-published with the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association Palliative nursing reflects a holistic philosophy of care and services for patients and families who face serious or life- threatening illness in a wide variety of settings and conditions. Hospice and palliative nurses work side-by-side with patients and their families as well as with numerous interdisciplinary colleagues, and provide consistent responsibility for the round- the-clock care of palliative patients. Attending to the patient's end-of-life physiological and psychological responses and requirements as well as to the social and cultural factors and the spiritual aspects of care is the essence of palliative nursing. This up-to-date guide reflects the specialty's development into practice that encompasses hospice and palliative nursing. It specifies the who, what, where, when, why, and how of palliative nursing practice, and provides essential guidance in the form of standards and competencies for all levels of practice.