Improving Nursing Education in Undergraduate Nursing Programs to Advance End of Life/Palliative Care

Marcia Grant, RN, DNSc, FAAN¹, Betty R. Ferrell, PhD, FAAN², and Rose Virani, RN, MHA, OCN². (1) Department of Nursing Research & Education, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA, USA, (2) Nursing Research, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA, USA

Design: The first target of this national nursing effort was on undergraduate nursing education since improved care is contingent upon the adequate preparation of all nurses during a formal education program before entry to practice.

Population, Sample, Setting and Years: This project occurred over the time period of 2000 – 2003. 502 faculty teaching in 461 undergraduate nursing programs representing all 50 states in the United States attended this training program and implemented the curriculum.

Concept and Outcome Variables: Key concepts and outcome variables included evaluation of the existing curriculum, student knowledge about end of life care, palliative care content in the curriculum and variables related to implementation of the content.

Methods: This educational research endeavor used a variety of methods for educational training to prepare faculty to critically assess their existing curriculum and implement content related to end of life/palliative care. Extensive educational research included assessment of faculty knowledge and beliefs, student knowledge and beliefs about end of life care, a curriculum survey and detailed follow up evaluation at 6 and 12 months post attendance.

Findings: Results of the 12 month evaluation indicate student knowledge and beliefs increased significantly in all nine content domains (p<.01). A mean of 10 hours of EOL content were added to the curriculum at 12 months post course attendance.

Conclusions: The ELNEC-Undergraduate project has been extremely successful resulting in improved faculty knowledge, curriculum change and student outcomes.

Implications: Efforts are underway to extend the ELNEC curriculum to the remaining undergraduate nursing programs in the United States. This project has major implications for basic preparation of nurse’s worldwide.