End-of-life Education in Undergraduate Nursing Curricula

Abstract

Americans are increasingly dying in hospitals. The provision of end-of-life care is essential to providing a death with dignity. However, this is not taught in many schools of nursing. The purpose of this article is to discuss the importance of including this important content in nursing curricula.

Palliative Care Education in Nurse Practitioner Programs

“…21,22 The limited palliative care instruction found in our survey is consistent with prior surveys of prelicensure nursing curricula. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] The minimal amount of palliative content in nurse practitioner programs may hinder the next generation of practitioners from developing skills to provide excellent palliative care if they believe it is not a valued part of their education. 23 This lack of exposure can have long-term effects.…”

“…The survey was designed to parallel questions about the content taught, type of instruction (eg, experiential, lecture), location of instruction (eg, hospital, hospice), educational background of instructors (eg, nurse, physician), and time dedicated to palliative care instruction found in prior surveys of prelicensure nursing curricula. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] The instrument was reviewed for content validity and ease of completion by 5 nurse practitioner faculty who teach palliative care but were not part of the study. …”

NNP Education in Neonatal End-of-life Care

“…are expected to have suffi cient knowledge to care for patients during all life stages, including dying" (p. 228). The curricula in nursing and medical schools, which determine the healthcare providers' awareness of EOL care, has been identifi ed as an important factor impacting a healthcare provider's clinical practice (Dickinson, 2007;Robinson, 2004Malloy, Ferrell, Virani, Wilson, & Uman, 2006. However, studies have documented that nurses and other healthcare professionals do not feel their education has prepared them adequately to deal with the ethical issues relating to EOL care.…”

Educational Interventions in End-of-Life Care

“…6 A more recent publication reported that in a survey of 37 nurses, 89.5% reported the importance of endof-life content for basic nursing education, 7 and yet 62% indicated that their undergraduate education on end-of-life care was inadequate. 6 A more recent publication reported that in a survey of 37 nurses, 89.5% reported the importance of endof-life content for basic nursing education, 7 and yet 62% indicated that their undergraduate education on end-of-life care was inadequate.…”