A palliative care educational intervention for frontline nursing home staff: the IMPRESS project.

The purpose of this study was to examine nursing home staff perceptions of end-of-life (EOL) care skills after an educational intervention. IMPRESS (IMproving PRofessional Education and Sustaining Support) was a quality improvement EOL care educational intervention (six lectures on core palliative care concepts) for frontline nursing home staff at five community nursing homes. Questionnaires were completed to evaluate frequency of application of palliative care skills before and after the educational series. Nursing home staff reported applying palliative care skills significantly more frequently after the intervention. A significant dose-response association was noted between number of inservice sessions attended and improvement in scores: Scores increased 0.04 points for staff who attended two of the six sessions, 0.12 for four sessions attended, and 0.46 for five to six sessions attended (p = 0.03). The results indicate that frontline nursing home staff who attend inservice sessions on core palliative care topics can significantly increase self-reported application of palliative care skills.