Nursing Education in Thanatology : A Curriculum Continuum

This important new book focuses on the practical considerations involved in including thanatology in the nursing curriculum. Authorities illustrate how prepared health care professionals who are educated about death and dying more effectively assist patients and/or their families during an emotionally difficult time. Learn the basics?from professionals who have taught nursing students?about developing developing a program in thanatology for nursing students. There are valuable chapters that describe the specific thanatology curricula at several different schools; provide techniques for incorporating such topics as cremation, euthanasia, grieving, and near-death experiences into the curriculum; discuss the role of the LPN in caring for the terminally ill and their families; and address the use computer-assisted instruction in death education.

Nursing Education in Thanatology is an excellent source book for planning thanatology courses or for integrating concepts of thanatology into a nursing curriculum. As the formal teaching of thanatology in schools for health care professionals is generally overlooked and ill-defined, many students and professionals will learn to deal with dying and grieving upon their first encounter with death. This practical book will aid educators in planned inclusion of thanatology in curriculum to insure the preparedness of health care professionals in assisting patients and/or their families during an emotionally difficult period. There are many suggestions presented for beneficial methods of integrating thanatology education into existing courses or offering thanatology as a single course for education professionals.
A vital resource for inservice coordinators working with clinicians in oncology, hospital staff, and health professionals in community or outpatient health centers, Nursing Education in Thanatology is excellent reading for helping professionals working with elderly people.