The End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) project is a national education initiative to improve palliative care. The project provides undergraduate and graduate nursing faculty, CE providers, staff development educators, specialty nurses in pediatrics, oncology, critical care and geriatrics, and other nurses with training in palliative care so they can teach this essential information to nursing students and practicing nurses. The project, which began in February 2000, was initially funded by a major grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). Additional funding has been received from the Open Society and National Cancer Institutes, Aetna, Archstone, Oncology Nursing, and California HealthCare Foundations, Cambia Health Foundations, Milbank Foundation for Rehabilitation, and the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA). To date, over 20,500 nurses and other healthcare professionals, representing all 50 US states, plus 88 international countries have received ELNEC training through these national courses and are sharing this new expertise in educational and clinical settings. ELNEC Trainers are hosting professional development seminars for practicing nurses, incorporating ELNEC content into nursing curriculum, hosting regional training sessions to expand ELNEC’s reach into rural and underserved communities, presenting ELNEC at national and international conferences, coordinating community partnerships, and improving the quality of nursing care in other innovative ways. It is estimated that since its inception, that ELNEC trainers have returned to their institutions and communities and have trained over 500,000 nurses and other healthcare providers. The ELNEC project is administered by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), Washington, DC and the City of Hope, Los Angeles, CA, and the esteemed faculty includes a national cadre of nursing leaders in palliative care
