Understanding Policies and its Effects on Hospice and Palliative Care

This paper explores how the level of knowledge in hospice and palliative care nurses concerning policy affects patient care. A literature review was conducted to determine how the level of policy knowledge influences various patient outcomes. This review focused on four main areas, including pain administration at the end of life, hesitancy to report errors, nonadherence to legislation and policy, and the impacts of moral distress. In addition to discussion concerning patient outcomes, this paper addresses education and other clinical practice recommendations to improve patient outcomes related to the four main areas of this paper.