Students’ Confidence and Interest in Palliative and Bereavement Care: A European Study

Abstract

As part of a European Erasmus Plus project entitled Death Education for Palliative Psychology, this study assessed the ways in which Master’s Degree students in psychology and the creative arts therapies self-rated their confidence and interest in death education and palliative and bereavement care. In five countries (Austria, Israel, Italy, Poland, Romania), 344 students completed an online questionnaire, and 37 students were interviewed to better understand their views, interest, and confidence. The results revealed some significant differences between countries, and showed that older respondents with previous experience as formal caregivers for end-of-life clients showed greater interest in obtaining practical clinical competence in these fields. A mediation analysis indicated that students’ previous care experiences and past loss experiences were related to students’ current interest in death education and palliative and bereavement care through the mediation of their sense of confidence in this field. The qualitative findings identified five shared themes: life and death, learning about death, the psychological burden, personal experience and robust training, and four key training needs. Overall, students’ interest in studying and working with terminal illness and death are rooted in internal resources, a preliminary sense of confidence, but also external requirements.

From Therapeutic Factors to Mechanisms of Change in the Creative Arts Therapies: A Scoping Review

“…This is particularly true regarding closer connections between joint CATs factors and their impacts on clinical skills such as intentionality, presence, and evaluation in distance-learning contexts (Vega and Keith, 2012 ; LaGasse and Hickle, 2015 ; Beardall et al, 2016 ; Blanc, 2018 ; Sajnani et al, 2019 , 2020 ; Pilgrim et al, 2020 ). Some studies can contribute directly to pedagogy in areas such as the student experience and student development (Orkibi et al, 2021 ), curricular and program development (Moon, 2003 ), field training approaches and models (Fish, 2008 ; Landy et al, 2012 ; Orkibi, 2012 ) and program evaluation and assessment protocols (Julliard et al, 2000 ; Cruz, 2013 ). For example, CATs educators can associate the change process to certain CATs models, such as the five domains of change (Koch, 2017 ) and the Expressive Therapies Continuum (Lusebrink et al, 2013 ).…”

Impact of Teaching Palliative Psychology with Psychodrama and Arts Therapies on Psychology Students in Klagenfurt

“…This content was taught to interested university students as a pilot course. In our needs assessment study, Orkibi et al [5] found high interest and confidence among students in palliative care and a deficit in training opportunities in all participating European countries.…”

“…As a subfield of psychology, it connects all areas of palliative conditions and aims to maintain the best possible quality of life at the end of life [3,4]. Profound training of palliative psychologists is a prerequisite for the well-being of all involved, but significant deficits were identified based on recent studies [5]. It stands to reason that a palliative psychologist should both understand the needs of a dying person and be able to deal with their fear of death [1].…”

“…This form of therapy provides a reasonable basis for trainees in health professions to best consider clients' well-being and respond spontaneously to obstacles. They benefit from the advantages of creative therapies in theory and practice [5].…”

“…Arts therapies include "visual/plastic arts therapy, drama therapy, dance movement therapy, music therapy, and poetry/biblio therapy" [5]. Implementing creative arts therapy in palliative care is vital [10].…”