The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) recently won the 2009 "Best of Training Category Horizon Interactive Award" for its e-Learning course, "Promoting Excellence in Palliative & End-of-Life Care." 

The Horizon Interactive Award, called an industry "Oscar" by the Indianapolis-based consortium of marketing, multimedia and Web organization that bestows it, "recognizes outstanding achievement in interactive media production."

The Best of Training Category, a gold-level mention, signifies the highest single honor for the international award, which recognizes the work of small firms and individual developers from around the world.

According to AACN, the e-Learning course is interactive and easy-to-navigate, and provides skills nurses need to care effectively for patients and families at the most difficult times of their lives.

Three modules address symptom management and comfort care, communication and conflict resolution, and withdrawing and withholding life support. Each provides feedback on nursing application of skills, communication and evidence-based care.

The course allows nurses to apply theory-based practice without risk of harm to patients and/or families, according to AACN, while creating a virtual environment that simulates the in-room patient experience and conveys the complexity of symptom management and trajectories of death.

AACN Clinical Practice Specialist Laura McNamara, MSN, RN, CCNS, CCRN, says the course helps nurses to recognize the dynamic nature of life and death and transition patients from cure to comfort. "Patients who require palliative and end-of-life care can be a tremendous source of stress for nurses, especially for those without experience in this type of care,' she says. "This course creates a safe environment for nurses to build the skills they need to care for patients and their families."

Enspire Learning, an educational multimedia company in Austin, TX, helped produce the course. Jan Farquhar, Enspire's instructional designer and lead writer, calls the e-learning course, "a truly unique and special project with stunning results."           

AACN has priced individual learner licenses for "Promoting Excellence in Palliative & End-of-Life Care" at $50 plus the cost of a 1-, 2- or 3-year institutional site license. For more product information or to purchase a site license, visit www.aacn.org.