Investigation and Analysis of Undergraduate Nursing Students’ Attitudes Toward Advanced Care Planning and Their Willingness to Implement

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study is to understand the attitude of undergraduate nursing students toward advanced care planning (ACP) and their willingness to implement ACP and to analyze its influencing factors, so as to provide evidence-based basis for life and death education and ACP-related training in colleges and universities. Methods: A total of 312 nursing undergraduates from a university in Chengdu (China) were surveyed by using general information questionnaire, attitude scale of ACP, and willingness questionnaire to implement ACP. Results: The scores of undergraduate nursing students’ attitude toward ACP were 24.97 ± 2.75, and the scores of total willingness to ACP were 79.26 ± 9.70. Univariate analysis and multivariate linear regression analysis showed that religious belief, grade, family relationship, and family discussion of death were the factors influencing the willingness of nursing students to carry out ACP. Conclusions: The attitude of undergraduate nursing students toward ACP tended to be positive, but their cognition of ACP was misunderstood, and their willingness to implement ACP needed to be improved. To improve the awareness and implementating willingness of undergraduate nursing students to ACP, it was recommended that colleges and universities carried out systematic standardized life and death education courses and ACP-related training.

Comparison of Awareness and Attitudes Toward Advance Care Planning Between Chinese Medical and Non-medical University Students

“…In the study, 59.89% of the students had never heard of ACP, which is lower than a previous survey of awareness of ACP among adolescents at 14 to 21 years of age (72%) in America [18], but it is similar to a recent study of undergraduate nursing students (65.9%) in China [15]. The low level of awareness of ACP among university students in mainland China was mainly related to the lack of advanced medical education.…”

“…However, it has been reported that university students in the rst 3 grades had a stronger willingness to participate in ACP than their seniors. This may be due to that they were younger, more premature, and did not know the di culties in the implementation of ACP in real life [15]. Secondly, 95.4% of the participants in the study had reported no religion.…”

“…Secondly, 95.4% of the participants in the study had reported no religion. It has also been shown that university students who had no religion were more likely to carry out ACP than those who had a religion [15]. Thirdly, all participants recruited in this study were university students who had high education levels.…”

“…University students, as the future backbone of the society, may play important roles in initiating and facilitating end-of-life discussions and be instrumental in ACP for their elders [14]. Although the great awareness and positive attitudes regarding ACP among university students will promote the spread and the development of ACP in public [15], there is a paucity of information on their awareness and attitudes towards ACP in mainland China. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 18-23-year-old university students included medical and non-medical students recruited from 12 public universities in 4 provinces in the east part of China.…”