Transforming Nursing Students’ Attitudes Toward End-of-Life Care

Abstract

End-of-life care is an important nursing competency and must be incorporated into the baccalaureate nursing curriculum. The purpose of this research was to examine the outcomes of an actual hospice compared with a simulated hospice clinical experience. This pretest and posttest nonequivalent 2-group design consisted of a sample of 65 undergraduate nursing students enrolled in a community health course. All students enrolled in the community health course have 1 day for hospice experience and a 2-hour orientation from the nurse educator at a local hospice agency. Students enrolled in the first 7 weeks were paired with a hospice nurse and conducted home visits. Students enrolled in the second 7-week session participated in 2 simulated hospice clinical experiences on campus. Thirty-two students were in the simulated hospice group and 33 were in the home hospice group. Attitudes toward end-of-life care were measured before and after the intervention with the Frommelt Attitudes Toward Care of the Dying. The findings indicated positive attitude changes toward end-of-life care. After the hospice clinical experience, both groups seemed to show increases in their mean Frommelt Attitudes Toward Care of the Dying scores, possibly indicating a greater comfort with caring for dying patients.

Perceptions on the current content and pedagogical approaches used in end-of-life care education among undergraduate nursing students: a qualitative, descriptive study

“…Without acquiescence that life comes to an end, it is enormously, perhaps impossibly, difficult to provide good end-of-life care. One study concluded that nursing students do not have a negative attitude toward caring for dying patients [ 6 ]. Some studies demonstrates that the didactic and clinical experiences of end-of-life care in nursing programs were inadequate due to the denial of death [ 49 , 50 ] However, previous study showed that death education can change both students’ and patients’ attitudes toward death [ 51 ].…”

“…Confidentiality and anonymity were ensured, and a semi-structured interview guide was used to elicit information about participants’ experiences of end-of-life care education [ 7 ]. An interview guide was developed based on the literature [ 6 , 27 ] and the clinical expertise of the authors. To eliminate disruptions, the interviews were conducted in the setting preferred by each participant and were arranged at a date and time convenient for the participant.…”

“…One study showed that nurses are moral agents who are deeply invested in the moral integrity of end-of-life care involving assisted death [ 5 ]. Furthermore, another study also indicated that nurses have always played a critical role in caring for the end-of-life patients [ 6 ]. Nurses are expected to provide the highest quality of care for dying patients and their families.…”

Metodologías para la enseñanza de cuidados paliativos en estudiantes de áreas de la salud

“…Los estudios se desarrollaron con estudiantes de pregrado de enfermería y medicina. Las simulaciones en algunos de los estudios impartieron conocimientos en CP (22)(23), conceptos básicos para enfermería y medicina en CP (24), evaluación y manejo de síntomas (23,25), comunicación terapéutica (22)(23)(25)(26), cuidado interdisciplinar para el paciente y la familia (23)(24)(25)27), opciones en la atención al nal de la vida CP (22,24), espiritualidad (22,24,27,28), aspectos culturales (28) y cómo abordar las discusiones acerca de la muerte con el paciente y la familia (22). Tres estudios fundamentaron su contenido en tres marcos teóricos para el desarrollo de competencias en enfermería, una de ellas llamada Chaarm, que recomienda que el personal de enfermería debe ser compasivo, holístico, atento, adaptable, realista / resuelto y moral (23).…”

End‐of‐life: An urgent update in nursing terminology

“…Palliative care teams have affinity through a shared vision of compassion, and a commitment to the relief of suffering and to overall improvement in healthcare delivery (Dahlin et al, 2019). Nurses have always played a central role in the care of dying patients (Mahan et al, 2019), and they have a unique key role attending to the nature of care they provide. Nurses are the healthcare professionals who are most willing to be present and best able to articulate what dying patients most need.…”