Abstract
Secondary to years of deficiencies in teaching end-of-life/palliative care content in nursing schools, nurses are currently working in many practice settings without the knowledge of how to best care for patients and families facing this difficult transition at the end of life. Nurses come to the hospice practice from a variety of practice settings, leaving a gap between nursing education and clinical practice regarding end-of-life care. Staff development educators in the hospice practice setting, who face teaching end-of-life continuing education to an interdisciplinary group, are investigating new delivery methods. One such method is blended learning, described as the integration of classroom face-to-face learning experiences in conjunction with online learning experiences. A blended-learning hospice staff orientation program could lead to a cultural and paradigm shift regarding methods of delivering staff orientation education. Chickering and Gamson's Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education is the framework for a blended-learning curriculum. In addition, the City of Hope and American Association of Colleges of Nursing's eight End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium online training modules are the core online components. Hospice programs that have incorporated a blended-learning orientation model report it to be both an effective and efficient delivery of end-of-life concepts to new staff, which is increasingly made up of Generation Xers and Yers, who expect technology integrated into their learning environment.