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Learning Objective 1: define the major components of professional quality of life (compassion satisfaction, trauma/compassion fatigue, and burnout).
Learning Objective 2: describe the relationship between perceptions of preparedness and ability to care for the dying and professional quality of life.
A study was undertaken to explore whether critical care nurses perceive that they have been adequately prepared in their basic nursing education to provide quality care for the dying and their loved ones, and to identify if there is a relation between perceptions of preparedness and ability to provide quality end of life (EOL) care and professional quality of life (PQOL).
Methods:
After IRB approval, an exploratory descriptive design was employed using web-based survey technology. Two tools were used for data collection: the PPCD, created to address perceptions of preparedness and ability to provide EOL care, and the ProQOL R-IV (Stamm, 2005), which is a 30 item established tool, comprised of three sub-scales which measure PQOL (compassion satisfaction, burnout, and trauma/compassion fatigue).
One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine the relationships between perceptions of preparedness and ability to provide quality EOL care (represented by 13 variables) and PQOL (three subscales). T-tests were used whenever there were no more than two response categories.
Results:
Participants represented all but two of these United States (N=505; Females 459; Mean Age =45). Significant relationships were found between perceptions of preparedness and ability to provide quality EOL care and PQOL (p range <.0001 to .05 on preparedness and ability items related to compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue and burnout scores). Eighty percent of participants do not perceive that their basic nursing education prepared them to provide quality care to the dying and their loved ones and 84% believe that there should be more EOL content during basic education.
Conclusion:
Findings are significant for nursing practice, education and research, suggesting that inclusive formal EOL education is needed and could ultimately potentiate a more satisfied workforce on the whole, since patients die in all areas of health care, not just in critical care.
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