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ÐÔÊÓ½çEndorses Palliative Care Competencies and 
Recommendations for Undergraduate Nursing Education 

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 9, 2016 – The ÐÔÊÓ½ç (AACN) is pleased to announce its support for a new set of competencies and recommendations that will guide the education of future nurses on providing quality end-of-life care. Titled Palliative CARES – Competencies And Recommendations for Educating undergraduate nursing Students – the ÐÔÊÓ½çBoard of Directors voted to endorse this document at its January 2016 meeting in Naples, FL. 
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"From initial diagnosis through the end of life, nurses spend more time with seriously ill patients and their families than any other healthcare provider," said Betty Ferrell, PhD, RN, FPCN, FAAN, Principal Investigator of ELNEC. "Educating nurses to provide quality palliative care across the lifespan in various clinical and community settings is critical as the population ages and patient acuity grows. As a result, the demand for new nurse graduates with a proficiency in palliative care is increasing in response to the greater number of people living with serious illness." 
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The CARES document is a timely update and revision of the 1998 Peaceful Death document published by AACN, which has served as the foundation for improving undergraduate end-of-life nursing education. This seminal work has been used extensively over the past 18 years in the development of various End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) curricula, which have been presented to over 20,700 nursing students, faculty, professional development educators, and clinicians in every state and in 88 countries worldwide and has been translated into eight languages. The ELNEC Project is a partnership between ÐÔÊÓ½çand the City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, CA. 
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With generous funding provided by the Cambia Health Foundation, the new CARES document was developed by 25 nursing faculty and clinical leaders with expertise in palliative care. The document provides the historical perspective of palliative care nursing education, outlines the current stat