Manual for Palliative Care: A Step-by-Step Guide for Acute Care Nurses

Deliver confident palliative care at the bedside with step-by-step guidance

Acute care nurses manage complex palliative needs in patients, despite often having limited formal training in palliative care. Manual for Palliative Care: A Step-by-Step Guide for Acute Care Nurses provides accessible, evidence-based guidelines for inpatient settings. Written by multidisciplinary authors with clinical and academic expertise, this handbook delivers foundational knowledge for medical-surgical units, emergency departments, intensive care units, and post-surgical units where access to specialty palliative teams may be limited.

Each chapter includes real-world examples and interprofessional perspectives from contributors across the country, addressing the role of the acute care nurse in supporting whole-person palliative care. This includes symptom management, patient and family communication, support for spiritual needs and family/caregiver coping, end-of-life care, disaster management, and self-care.

Readers will discover:

• Step-by-step guidelines for collaborative, timely, holistic, patient-centered interventions that foster confidence in nonspecialist nurses providing palliative care
• Physical and non-physical symptom management strategies that help patients and families maintain quality of life and dignity during acute hospitalization
• Communication frameworks addressing barriers between clinicians and families, including guidance on advanced care planning and challenging legal issues
• Evidence-based approaches responding to nursing organization calls for primary palliative care knowledge and skills across all practice settings

Designed for acute care nurses in inpatient settings, this manual equips the bedside workforce with practical palliative interventions they can implement immediately. Whether you work in medical, surgical, emergency, intensive care, or post-surgical units, Manual for Palliative Care builds confidence in delivering quality palliative care.

KATIE L. ROBINSON, PHD, RN-BC, CHPN, is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at California State University San Marcos specializing in hospice and palliative care. Board certified since 2011, she leads palliative curriculum development and interprofessional education. Her scholarship advances early palliative needs assessment, collaboration, and comprehensive care for seriously ill patients and families.

PAMELA WOLFE KOHLBRY, PHD, RN, CNL, is Professor Emerita at California State University San Marcos School of Nursing and former Director of University Relations and Research at the CSU Shiley Haynes Institute for Palliative Care. She has extensive expertise in curriculum development and implementing palliative care education across disciplines.

CARMEN WARNER-ROBBINS, RN, MSN, PHN, MDIV, FAAN, is a publishing consultant and retired adjunct professor at Point Loma Nazarene University’s School of Nursing and a nurse-chaplain with over sixty years of experience. She founded Welcome Home Ministries and serves as national chaplain for the American Jail Association.

JUDITH A. DEPALMA, PHD, RN, is a Writing Coach for clinicians and doctoral students, working with palliative care teams in Pittsburgh. She directed a collaborative nursing research center and has taught evidence-based practice and research at BSN, PhD, and DNP levels while serving on multiple editorial boards.