Phases and Transitions of Serious Illness: A Structure for Teaching Palliative Care.

Background: Palliative care (PC) focuses on listening to patient preferences, goals, and values to help health care providers educate, support, and collaborate during challenging disease processes, demanding treatments, and difficult decision-making.

Method: A recently developed Phases and Transitions Model for Serious Illness helps guide nursing students in initiating therapeutic conversations about PC. Each phase and transition shows unique characteristics of illness and treatment to clarify the importance of introducing PC for that phase. Interventions in education, support, and treatment help students guide patients and families through the trajectory of serious illness.

Results: The Phases and Transitions Model for Serious Illness and PC interventions provide a clear and practical structure to educate and empower nursing students to engage in PC conversations.

Conclusion: Nursing educators can integrate this new model to broaden the perspective of PC as an everyday nursing practice for patients who have a serious illness. [J Nurs Educ. 2023;62(5):279-284.].