The Advanced Certificate in Palliative Care focuses on optimizing the quality of life in patients with advanced illness. Palliative care nurse practitioners assist patients and families to identify their goals of care and match treatment to meet these goals, while emphasizing physical, emotional, and spiritual symptom management. Palliative care is appropriate at any stage of illness and is optimally provided at the same time as disease treatment.
The palliative care specialty can be added to any population nurse practitioner program. The scope of practice of the palliative care pP provides care to diverse patient populations of all ages, across all clinical settings, including acute, primary, long-term, mental health, and community care settings.