Evaluation of an Established In-Home, Palliative Care Program and its Impact on Improving Patient Health Outcomes

Background and Review of Literature: Palliative care has a high potential to increase quality of life for patients with serious illnesses through symptom management and providing care and support. There are various settings and organizations where individuals can receive such care. Still, many people prefer staying at home in a familiar environment. The problem is that palliative care programs should be effective to justify the resources invested and maintain patients' quality of life. Moreover, as literature review shows they should involve advanced practice registered nurses (APRN) to achieve better outcomes since these specialists have considerable skills and competencies, but their potential is not used to the fullest.
Purpose: The current DNP project is aimed at evaluating the palliative care program provided by Prospero Health to confirm its compliance with the goals of adequate care. Moreover, the project assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the project, identifies barriers to its implementation, and assesses the effectiveness in a decrease of hospitalizations. Another goal is to provide recommendations to improve the performance of the Prospero Health program based on the evaluation results.