Sigma's 30th International Nursing Research Congress Preparing Nurses to Provide Primary Palliative Care: Outcomes of an Innovative Experiential Learning Project Toni L. Glover, PhD, GNP-BC, ACHPN School of Nursing, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA Ann L. Horgas, PhD, RN, FGSA, FAAN College of Nursing, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA Susan Bluck, PhD Psychology Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA Sheri Kittelson, MD College of Medcine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA Paula Turpening, MN, ANP-BC, ACHPN College of Medicine, UF Health Palliative Care, Gainesville, FL, USA Purpose: The nursing role includes providing compassionate care at the end of life, yet many nurses feel unprepared to provide care for seriously ill or dying patients (American Nurses Association, 2016). With the increase in prevalence of serious illness and the aging of the worldwide population, palliative care programs have grown in number (Dumanosky et al., 2016). Fewer than 18,000 of the three million nurses in the United States, however, have specialty certification in hospice and palliative care (Hospice and Palliative Credentialing Center, 2018). Primary palliative nursing care (i.e., skills that all nurses should have) includes assessment and management of the symptoms of serious illness; communication skills to help patients and families understand and cope with illness throughout the disease trajectory; advocacy skills to ensure patient-centered care aligns with individual goals and values; and, skills to provide respectful care for the dying patient and support for the bereaved (National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care, 2013). To create a guiding framework for these skills, nursing leaders and experts developed a comprehensive list of palliative care nursing competencies, known as CARES that can be used by nurse educators to develop content for students to successfully attain primary palliative care knowledge (Ferrell, Mazanec, Malloy & Virani, 2016). Observing positive role models in palliative care clinical practice can enhance student learning (Anderson, Kent, & Owens, 2015). Applying the principles of experiential learning (Kolb, 2015), we believe students internalize the key nursing concepts of caring and compassion by interacting with patients and families receiving palliative care. To this end, we developed the Comfort Shawl Project, an experiential service-learning project that immerses senior nursing students in palliative care (Glover, Horgas, Castleman, Turpening, & Kittelson, 2017). In this study, we examine the outcomes related to nursing student attitudes toward death, levels of empathy, and confidence in providing primary palliative care during their yearlong involvement in the project. Students involved with the Comfort Shawl Project attend the interdisciplinary team meetings of the palliative care consult service, gift handcrafted shawls to patients receiving palliative care, and participate in extracurricular events focused on palliative care, attitudes toward death and dying, and engagement with the local community. The handcrafted shawls are made by volunteers, including community volunteers, alumni, and nursing students. Along with nurses, physicians, social workers, and others on the palliative care team, students identified patients and families that might like to receive a shawl. Students went on weekly rounds in pairs to gift the shawls, visiting with each patient for 5-15 minutes. Patients were shown multiple shawls and asked if they would like to choose one. In cases where the patient was unresponsive, students interacted with the family or the nurse caring for the patient. In addition to the direct patient/family interaction, students engaged in a variety of educational activities and experiences that prepared them to provide compassionate and patient-centered nursing care to those facing serious illness. Methods: