Palliative care and end of life issues in pre-registration, undergraduate nursing programmes

Dickinson, G. E., Clark, D. and Sque, M. (2008) Palliative care and end of life issues in pre-registration, undergraduate nursing programmes. Nurse Education Today, 28(2), pp. 163-170. (doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2007.03.008)

[img] Text
45330.pdf - Accepted Version

132kB

Abstract

End of life and palliative care topics have traditionally not been in nursing school curricula. Only in recent years have these been included. The aim of this research was to determine the current status of such an emphasis in programmes in the United Kingdom (UK). A mailed survey in 2006 to the 66 undergraduate (pre-registration) nursing programmes in the UK (return rate of 79%) determined that end of life and palliative care play a significant role in these programmes. Forty-five teaching hours on average were devoted to these topics. All of the schools have some provision on end of life and palliative care, and over 95% of students participated in these courses. A nurse was usually the primary instructor, although non-nurses were sometimes used. Attitudes toward dying and death and communicating with terminally-ill patients and family members were emphasised. By highlighting dying and death in the curricula, nursing schools appeared to be giving nursing students an opportunity to face the issue of death, thus helping them to be better prepared to help their patients and their families to do so.

Item Type:Articles
Additional Information:NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Nurse Education Today. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Nurse Education Today,28(2):163-170,2008 DOI: 10.1016/j.nedt.2007.03.008
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Clark, Professor David
Authors: Dickinson, G. E., Clark, D., and Sque, M.
Subjects:R Medicine > RT Nursing
College/School:College of Social Sciences > School of Social & Environmental Sustainability
Journal Name:Nurse Education Today
Publisher:Elsevier Ltd.
ISSN:0260-6917
ISSN (Online):1532-2793
Published Online:25 April 2007
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2007 Elsevier Ltd.
First Published:First published in Nurse Education Today 28(2):163-170
Publisher Policy:Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher

University Staff: Request a correction | Enlighten Editors: Update this record