Nursing Home Staff Palliative Care Knowledge and Practices: Results of a Large Survey of Frontline Workers

Abstract Context Deficits in quality end-of-life care for nursing home (NH) residents are well known. Palliative care is promoted as an approach to improve quality. The Palliative Care Survey (PCS) is designed to measure NH staff palliative care knowledge and practice. Objectives To comparing palliative care knowledge and practices across NH staff roles using the PCS, and to examine relationships between facility characteristics and PCS scores. Methods The PCS was administered to frontline NH staff—certified nursing assistants (CNAs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs), registered nurses (RNs), and social workers (SWs)—in 51 facilities in 2012. Descriptive statistics were calculated by job role. Linear mixed effects models were used to identify facility and individual factors associated with palliative care practice and knowledge. Results The analytic sample included 1200 surveys. CNAs had significantly lower practice and knowledge scores compared to LPNs, RNs, and SWs ( P