Increasing Access to Care: Designing a Blended Curriculum to Educate Adult Hospice Nurses in Caring for Pediatric Patients

Abstract

Access to care for pediatric hospice patients is inhibited by a lack of providers specifically educated to care for pediatric patients. Education that seeks to address this gap in care must develop the specific knowledge and skills required to care for pediatric patients, and this education must also be delivered in a format that enables convenient access to providers. This article describes the development of an innovative blended curriculum to build upon the existing knowledge base and skill set required by experienced adult hospice care providers to expand care for pediatric patients. The article elucidates how the community of practice framework and Bloom’s taxonomy informed the blended curriculum leveraging both online, asynchronous modules and virtual, synchronous precepting sessions and also informed the selection of content, activities, and assessment methods aligned to requisite competencies and skills. It also details the identification of requisite competencies and skills and the next steps in piloting this intervention.