Impact of the educational session on knowledge and attitude toward palliative care among undergraduate medical, nursing, and physiotherapy students: a comparative study

Background: Palliative care forms an integral part in the treatment of terminally-ill patients. To care for dying patients requires a thorough medical education, which is lacking in today’s undergraduate curriculum. The objective was to compare the attitude and knowledge about palliative care among the undergraduates of medical, nursing, and physiotherapy before and after an educational session on palliative care.Methods: A pre-validated 20-point questionnaire on attitude and knowledge about palliative care was distributed to 2nd year medical (22), nursing (28) and physiotherapy (20) students before and after palliative care educational session. Results obtained were compared within and in between the groups. Paired t test was used for within the group and one-way ANOVA for in between the group comparison. p-value <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.Results: All groups showed statistically significant improvement in knowledge, attitude, and pain management scores following palliative care educational session. The pre-session evaluation showed that physiotherapy students had better knowledge and attitude about palliative care. Pre-educational assessment of knowledge about pain management was similar among the three groups statistically. After the session, mean improvement in palliative care knowledge scores was more in medical, followed by physiotherapy and nursing students. On inter-group comparison, statistically significant improvement in knowledge scores was seen in medical and physiotherapy students compared with nursing students. All three groups showed statistically similar improvement in attitude and pain management scores.Conclusion: Significant improvement was seen in attitude and basic knowledge about palliative care in the students following an educational session. Therefore, including palliative care in the curriculum enables them to deliver appropriate end-of-life care to patients

Knowledge of Palliative Care among Bachelors Nursing Students

Background: Palliative care clinical nurse specialists play an important role in specialist palliative care. They spend time with patients and their families, helping them come to terms with an array of complex emotional and practical problems, facilitating communication, giving information and advice about treatments and also offering expertise in controlling pain and other distressing symptoms. Aim of the study: The purpose of this study was to assess the PC knowledge using PCQN of  BSN students in Arab American University/ Jenin, Palestine.Subjects and methods: Descriptive, cross sectional study was used for conducting the study, A convenience sample 198 nursing students were included  from the two respective nursing levels third year and fourth year. Data collected through; demographic characteristic and PC knowledge. The PCQN  scale was used as the tool to assess the PC knowledge level. Results:  The total percentage rate on the PCQN was 40.58% (SD=13.89011). There is no statistically significant difference at (p &lt; 0.05) between PC knowledge and gender, academic level, personal or professional experience with palliative care, and course of palliative care (0.377, 0.896, 0.741, and 0.829) respectively. Highly statistically significant relation according age (p˃0.000).Conclusion: Clinical Relevance: third and fourth level BSN students had lack adequate information on palliative care, and did not meet the AACN expectation of a generalist registered nurse. Keywords: Knowledge, Nursing students, Palliative car

Syrian Health Providers' Knowledge of Palliative Care: An Online Cross‑Sectional Study in Syria

Background: Palliative care is a method to alleviate pain and enhance the quality of life for patients suffering from the consequences of a life-threatening illness. The knowledge of palliative care among healthcare professionals is poor; therefore, training programs are needed to offer patients appropriate treatment and improve their health. In Syria, as palliative care programs are rarely applied, we aim to evaluate the knowledge regarding palliative care among healthcare workers. &nbsp; Methods: This is an online cross-sectional study conducted between July 24 and August 28, 2022 to measure palliative care knowledge and its applications among Syrian healthcare workers. The questionnaire for the study was designed in light of a previous study, and the inclusion criteria were Syrian healthcare workers, including physicians and nurses, as well as medical and nursing students. The four sections of the questionnaire included sociodemographic information in the first part, while the second, third, and fourth parts assessed experience, knowledge, and attitude toward palliative care among healthcare workers, respectively. Data were analyzed in IBM SPSS V. 28.0 using descriptive and multivariate logistic regression analysis. &nbsp; Results: Among 602 participants, 66.2% of participants were females. Most respondents were medical students (72.9%), while residents and nurses or nursing students represented 18.8% and 8.3%, respectively. The majority of participants (84%) answered the question about pain treatment goals correctly, while a small percentage (5.3%) answered the question about whether or not long-term opioid use is addictive correctly. No significant difference in the overall knowledge score was shown among geographical areas, genders, and different specialties. Regarding the knowledge questions related to palliative care, only 14 participants were considered knowledgeable. The three most responses that received agreement regarding the attitudes towards palliative care were “Pain relievers should be given as needed to terminally ill patients” (89.7%), “Spiritual care must include counseling for the terminally ill patient” (84.3%), “Patients have the right to determine their own degree of psychosocial intervention” (81%).&nbsp; A significant difference existed between urban and rural residents in terms of the attitude score. When comparing first-year students to those in their fifth year, students in their fifth year were 8.06 times more likely to have a positive attitude.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that healthcare professionals have inadequate knowledge about palliative care. There is an urgent need to introduce palliative care to the health system in Syria in order to improve the quality of life of these patients in their terminal stages of illness and to provide care for patients who need it

Palliative Care Knowledge among Bachelors of Science Nursing Students

Purpose: To assess the palliative care (PC) knowledge of junior and senior level bachelors of science nursing (BSN) students and to compare the PC knowledge between these two groups of students. Design: A non-experimental quantitative, cross-sectional, survey design was used. Methods: Seventy two students from a junior level and a senior level BSN course were recruited at a southeastern United States university. The participants completed the demographic form and the Palliative Care Quiz for Nursing (PCQN). Data collection took place from September 2013 to October 2013. Data Analysis: Overall mean score percentage from the total sample and mean raw scores from each group were used to answer the research questions. An independent t test was performed to assess for differences in PC knowledge scores between the two groups of students. Results: The total percentage rate on the PCQN was 61%. Juniors (M=11.7) scored slightly lower on the PCQN than senior level (M=12.93) students. The difference in scores were small, but statistically significant (p\u3c0.05). Participants scored lowest on identifying chronic versus acute pain, and highest on understanding that palliative care is an aggressive treatment. Clinical Relevance: Junior and senior level BSN students lack adequate information on palliative care, and did not meet the AACN expectation of a generalist registered nurse. Further, internal reliability of the PCQN was a concern. Additional reliability testing of the PCQN should be done in the future

Awareness and Attitude of Undergraduate Nursing Students at King Saud bin Abdul-Aziz University Regarding Palliative Care

Context: Palliative care (PC) is a form of care that aims to enhance the life quality of patients and their families who are dealing with the effects of the life-threatening disease by preventing and alleviating distress by early detection, accurate evaluation, and management of pain and other physical, psychosocial, and spiritual issues.Aim: This study aimed to assess the awareness and attitude of undergraduate nursing students at King Saud bin Abdul-Aziz University regarding palliative care. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional design was utilized to achieve the aim of this study. The study was conducted at the College of Nursing - Riyadh, affiliated to King Saud bi Abdul-Aziz University. A convenience sample of 273 nursing students from level five to level eight voluntarily participated in this study. Data were collected by using two tools. A self-reported questionnaire was designed to assess the students' awareness of palliative care. Frommelt Attitude Towards Care of the Dying (FATCOD) Scale was adopted to measure participants’ attitudes toward providing care to dying patients. Results: The results show that about 36.3% of nursing students were in the age group of 21 years old, and 73% were in the sixth academic level. 75.5% of the nursing students were not aware of palliative care, and 30.30% knew about PC from the elective course. 96.33% of students had no experience caring for terminally ill patients and their family members previously. The students' response analysis of PC definition revealed that 89.74 of them could not define it correctly, 41% could not know the aim of PC, and 43% of students identified the need for terminally ill to reduce their physical suffering. The students' attitudes toward palliative care showed a swing between positive and negative attitudes. As 81% of students believe that giving nursing care to the dying person is a worthwhile learning experience, 65.5% agreed about nursing care for the patient's family should continue throughout grief and bereavement. In comparison, 77.3% would hope the person they cared for dies when they are not present, 41.5% of the students believe that they would be uncomfortable talking about impending death with the dying person, and 40.9% were uncertain about this. Conclusion: Knowledge about palliative care among undergraduate nursing students remained relatively poor overall. Attitude toward end-of-life care shows a swing between positive and negative attitudes yet still reflected an evident lack of comfort in dealing with death and dying. Structured courses in palliative care are recommended as a core part of undergraduate nursing education. The suggested course should encompass basic professional skills, symptom control, patient-centered communication, ethical issues, decision-making at the end of life, whole-person care, and interdisciplinary work

Education that makes a difference to palliative and end of life care at the bedside in a resource-poor context: the situation of Cameroon

Background Current demographic trends giving rise to an ageing population worldwide, and changes in disease patterns, are increasing demands for palliative and end of life care. Nurses play a fundamental role in the care of patients with chronic and life-threatening illnesses, making it critical that nurses entering the profession should be competent and confident to provide palliative care. However, some preregistration nursing curricula, particularly those in resource-poor settings, do not include any palliative care content. Existing research identifies a lack of palliative care competencies among practising nurses, both newly graduated and student nurses. Aim The aim of this study was to develop, pilot and evaluate the impact of a palliative care course on Cameroonian preregistration nursing students’ palliative care knowledge and self-perceived competence and confidence in palliative care provision, using Kirkpatrick’s (1967) framework for training programme evaluation. Design This study is situated within the World Health Organisation’s public health model for palliative care as an overarching theoretical framework. It employed a longitudinal quasi-experimental pretest/posttest design, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. It was conducted in 3 phases. In the first phase, a 30 hours classroom based palliative care course, underpinned by experiential learning theory, was developed. In the second phase, the course was delivered to second and third year nursing students in one University in Cameroon, by nurse educators, a chaplain and palliative care trained nurses in Cameroon. In the third phase, an evaluation of the impact of the course on students’ palliative care knowledge, self-perceived competence and confidence in palliative care, and transfer of learning to practice was conducted. Course evaluation data was collected via a pretest/posttest survey, 3 focus groups and 10 individual critical incident interviews. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the quantitative data. The qualitative data was analysed thematically using the framework approach. Findings This study revealed a deficiency in the palliative care content of the pilot University’s preregistration nurse training curriculum, and very poor palliative care knowledge and self-perceived competence and confidence in palliative care provision, among preregistration nursing students of this University.A 30 hour classroom based palliative care course, delivered by nurse educators, palliative care nurses and a chaplain in Cameroon was found to statistically significantly improve students’ overall palliative care knowledge. In this study students’ also had improvements in their self-perceived competence and confidence in palliative care provision, though this was not statistically significant.Student nurses in receipt of palliative care education were able to transfer their learning to practice. They reported recognizing patients with palliative care needs, providing patients with physical, psychosocial and spiritual support and communicating patient information to the wider care team. Notwithstanding this positive finding, some factors, related to the student themselves, the qualified nurses, the practice setting or the patient and family, were found to negatively impact on the learning transfer process. The students generally felt that the course was an ‘eye opener’ and met with their expectations. They perceived the major strength of the course was the use of interactive and stimulating educational strategies, but felt that the absence of a supervised clinical practice component with dying patients was a major weakness of this course. Conclusion There is a need for a curriculum revision to include palliative care content in the preregistration nurse training curricula of the pilot University. This seems to reflect a general need by all preregistration nursing students in this country. This study’s findings reveal the need to advocate for palliative care education and practice policies, and for adequately preparing clinical placement sites for nursing students’ palliative care learning and transfer of learning in Cameroon, and possibly other resource poor settings

Palliative care knowledge among final year medicine & health sciences students: a cross-sectional study

Background: According to the WHO, approximately 40 million people need palliative care each year. In the year 2020, an estimated 56.8 million adults and children experienced unnecessary suffering that can be managed and treated by palliative care. In the Malaysian context, the number of people requiring palliative care is estimated to be 56,000 yearly, including all diseases. This increasing need for care requires study and increasing education of all healthcare professionals. There is a lack of studies on the medical students’ knowledge of palliative care conducted in Malaysia and this study aimed to evaluate the knowledge of palliative care among final-year undergraduate medicine and health science students. Patients and methods: This cross-sectional study targeted the final year students who are currently studying at universities in Klang Valley. The respondents were recruited using convenience sampling methods. Results: A total of 102 responses were collected from the medical, physiotherapy, and nursing students, and the results showed that the participants had attained at least an average knowledge on palliative care. Limitations: Small sample size, therefore, unable to represent the study population as a whole. Conclusions: All healthcare professionals should receive training in the basic knowledge and skill that they need as students Healthcare organizations should provide workshops or e-learning modules for students in their clinical postings and expose them to the principles of palliative care, to increase their knowledge and behavior to dying patients

Clinical Observation Reflections from Students in an Interdisciplinary Palliative Care Course

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into how a brief clinical observation encounter contributed to students’ experiences in an interdisciplinary palliative care course. This course was required of all graduate nursing students and was available as an elective for medical and other healthcare professions students at a healthcare sciences university. The students were required to spend approximately 8 to 12 hours attending interdisciplinary team meetings or accompanying a team on rounds and patient visits. The students’ summary narratives of their observation experience were analyzed in this qualitative study that focused on six categories of feedback: (1) patients’ and families’ reactions, (2) communication issues with patients and families, (3) how the palliative care team speaks with the patient and family, (4) communication within the interdisciplinary team, (5) students’ reflections, and (6) students’ suffering. This study demonstrated that a clinical observation activity can be a valuable introduction to palliative care principles for healthcare students in an interdisciplinary course. Students benefited from gaining insight into family/practitioner communications regarding difficult issues, interdisciplinary roles and cooperation, and application of palliative care principles to clinical practice. Further research is required to identify appropriate interventions to deal with student distress resulting from such early career clinical encounters

Improving Care at the End of Life

Reviews RWJF's investments in improving end-of-life care, impact on the field, and lessons learned, including the need to coordinate objectives, integrate strategies, tie strategies to policy changes and incentives, and link communications and evaluation

A Framework for Integrating Oncology Palliative Care in Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Education

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) faculty play a critical role in preparing students to meet the complex needs of the nation as the number of cancer rates and survivors rise (National Cancer Institute, 2018) and as an unprecedented number of older Americans enter into the healthcare system with complicated comorbidities (Whitehead, 2016). Palliative care has dramatically expanded over the past decade and has been increasingly accepted as a standard of care for people with cancer and other serious, chronic, or life-limiting illnesses. Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) are recognized as important providers of palliative care (Walling et al., 2017). A 2-day course was held with support from the National Cancer Institute to enhance integration of palliative oncology care into DNP curriculum. The course participants (N = 183), consisting of DNP faculty or deans, practicing DNP clinicians, and students, received detailed annotated slides, case studies, and suggested activities to increase student engagement with the learning process. Course content was developed and delivered by palliative care experts and DNP faculty skilled in curriculum design. Participants were required to develop goals on how to enhance their school\u27s DNP curriculum with the course content. They provided updates regarding their progress at integrating the content into their school\u27s curriculum at 6, 12, and 18 months post course. Results demonstrated an increase in incorporating oncology palliative care in DNP scholarly projects and clinical opportunities. Challenges to inclusion of this content in DNP curricula included lack of: perceived time in curriculum; faculty educated in palliative care; and available clinical sites