Evaluating End-of-Life Care Education Within Nursing Programs

Abstract

Many nurses report feeling ill prepared through their formal education to competently care for dying patients and their families. These deficits signal a need for curricular reform; however, current practices in the provision of palliative and end-of-life (EOL) care education must first be systematically evaluated to guide these reforms. This article will share the findings of a pilot study in which the context, input, process, and product evaluation model was used to guide a detailed evaluation of palliative and EOL care education within a baccalaureate nursing program. Critical aspects of palliative and EOL care education were identified from a decomposition of the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) core curriculum. From the decomposition, a new instrument was developed and completed by nursing faculty members teaching in 1 baccalaureate program. Faculty members identified the ELNEC topics that were taught, the courses within which the content was provided, and the associated teaching methods used. Overall, 95.3% of ELNEC core curriculum content was included in the program; however, great interinstructor variability was noted. Clinical conference discussion/debriefing and lecture were most frequently used to teach ELNEC content. The content was addressed throughout the curriculum, particularly in ethics and aging didactic courses. Implications of the findings for future educational research are discussed.

Nurses’ knowledge, attitude, and competence regarding palliative and end-of-life care: a path analysis

“…Previous research has noted that inadequate confidence in nurses may influence the quality of palliative care they provide (Lippe et al, 2017). In particular, Pesut et al (2014) have revealed positive effects of palliative care education interventions on nurses' knowledge, abilities, and attitudes regarding care for dying people in several settings.…”

A Website Supporting Sensitive Religious and Cultural Advance Care Planning (ACPTalk): Formative and Summative Evaluation

“…The framework is not inhibited by assumptions of logic models [47] and is underpinned by the principles of the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation [40]. CIPP has been widely used to evaluate health care services [49][50][51], educational and training programs [47,[52][53][54], and webinars [55]. The CIPP model enables evaluators to design specific core questions for each evaluation type that are relevant to the intended project to be assessed.…”

Assessing the Palliative and End-of-Life Care Education-Practice-Competence Triad in Intensive Care Units: Content Validity, Feasibility, and Reliability of a New Tool

“…14,15 Efforts have been made, therefore, to specify what education nurses should receive, [16][17][18] what competencies to be mastered, 19,20 and what practice to be implemented 21,22 to provide high-quality PEOL care for patients and their families. Several tools were also developed to assess PEOL care education, 23,24 practice, [25][26][27] and perceived competence. [28][29][30] However, a comprehensive, psychometrically robust instrument to assess PEOL care education, practice, and perceived competence among ICU nurses does not exist.…”

“…Existing tools are criticized for being too long, 23,24 of poorly reported psychometric properties, 25,31,32 of a limited focus to a particular setting or subpopulation, 26,32,33 of a limited focus on the end of life period, 27,29,34 or not providing precise data on all domains of PEOL care. 30,35 Existing tools often assign different weights to different care domains, 33,36 and therefore, domains are not comparable without scores transformation, which is often not done.…”