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The Science of Caring

The first of its kind in the country, UIC’s patient-centered, family focused coursework in end-of-life care prepares health professionals to help patients of all ages and their families to face the challenges that come with an end-of-life transition.

The Advanced Practice Palliative Care Nurse Certificate Program (APPCN) at the College of Nursing is a life-span oriented specialty certificate program that prepares advanced practice nurses in the science and practice of end-of-life and palliative care in order to serve neonates, children, adults, and the elderly in rural and medically underserved areas.

According to Dr. Jeannine Forrest, project director and research assistant professor, “The American healthcare system often fails to provide sustaining care to people who are facing their own death or the death of a family member. Patients of all ages and their families need advanced, competent help in navigating the myriad of physical, psychosocial, spiritual and economic challenges of serious illness, along with support in making complex and difficult ethical decisions consistent with preferences for end-of-life care.”

“It’s the part that’s always missed,” added Melissa Hernandez, project coordinator for the Palliative Care Program. “It’s the psychosocial, humanistic way of treating a patient.”

Nationally, only two other programs offer education in palliative care for advanced practice nurses. The program at UIC is the only one to encompass care of patients of all ages, and the only program in the Midwest.

Currently, the program offers three courses – in the areas of pain and symptom management, death and dying, and ethics and culture – which are open to individuals in the UIC College of Nursing Master’s Program, or in a master’s program outside UIC. The program prepares students to sit for the exam administered through the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA) to become credentialed in palliative care.

Graduates of the program are particularly well-versed in the legal, ethical, and socio-political issues related to our nation’s top causes of morbidity and mortality (i.e., cancer, heart disease, stroke, congenital disorders, chronic childhood problems, and neurologic and psychiatric conditions).

The program is made possible with an $800,000 grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The palliative care certification program is also dedicated to forming community partnerships to serve the health care professionals and patients of underserved areas. One of the program’s first community partners, El Valor, is a non-profit organization in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. El Valor’s mission of working with children and families with disabilities and encouraging leadership in higher education has been an excellent way to increase palliative care awareness and the recruitment of Latino students.