Paper
Thursday, July 12, 2007
This presentation is part of : Education to Support EBN
End-of-Life Care: A Transdisciplinary Teaching Strategy
Tami L. Boroughf, RN, BSN, MS1, Diane Stuenkel, EdD, RN2, and Marian K. Yoder, EdD, RN1. (1) School of Nursing, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA, USA, (2) School of Nursing, San Jose State University, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA, USA
Learning Objective #1: Discuss specific teaching/learning strategies that can be implemented to integrate end-of-life care into the nursing curriculum.
Learning Objective #2: List two positive outcomes of addressing end-of-life care communication issues with baccalaureate nursing students.
Purpose:  The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a transdisciplinary  seminar that focused on end of life (EOL) communication skills.  The goal was to increase  students’ comfort and confidence levels.  The research question was: Is there a statistically significant difference in nursing students’ comfort and confidence levels in dealing with end-of-life care issues following an educational seminar?

Design:  Quasi-experimental, pretest and posttest design.

Sample/Setting: A convenience sample of 24 ethnically diverse, baccalaureate nursing students  at a public, urban university in California.

Instruments: (a) The Health Care Providers Survey of End-of-Life Perceptions, Knowledge, and Attitudes (HCPSELPKA), created by Dr. Janet Timms (2004), (b) The End-of-Life Confidence Scale, and (c) The Demographic and Personal Experience Questionnaire.

Intervention: A transdisciplinary panel (chaplain, Licensed Medical Social Worker, pediatric nurse) discussion, video clip, case study with small/large group discussion, and an optional reflective activity.

Data Collection:  Participants completed all three instruments prior to the seminar, and completed the HCPSELPKA and EOL Confidence Scale after the seminar.  Identification numbers were used to protect confidentiality and allow matching of pretests/posttests.

 Analysis: Descriptive statistics were obtained and the Wilcoxon rank sum analysis was used to examine differences in pretest/posttest median scores.

Results: There was a statistically significant difference in the medians from the HCPSELPKA pretest and posttest scores measuring student comfort with EOL issues (z = -3.314, p < .002; n2=.453). A statistically significant difference also was found between the median pretest and posttest scores on The End-of-Life Confidence Scale measure (z = -3.178, p < .002; n2=.402). Limitations:  This study used a small, convenience sample and therefore is only generalizable to a similar diverse student population.

Discussion/Implications: This seminar was an effective and creative strategy to integrate EOL content without making extensive changes (e.g. Implementing an elective course) to an existing nursing program.

 

See more of Education to Support EBN
See more of The 18th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice (11 -- 14 July, 2007)