Effectiveness of Pediatric Palliative Care Education Program in Strengthening Nursing Students' Palliative Care Practices and Attitudes Toward Care of the Dying

Abstract

Objective: The present study used a quasi-experimental design to determine the effectiveness of palliative care education program in strengthening nursing students' palliative care practices and attitudes toward care of the dying. Methods: Using the GPOWER 3.0 statistical analysis software package, the sample size for each group was determined as 8 students. The study involved 39 nursing student of 4th year, including 17 students in the experimental group and 22 in the control group. A pediatric palliative care education program was applied to the intervention group through interactive learning methods. The education consisted of a 14-week program. It was delivered to the students as a 1-hour education session each week using the face-to-face teaching model. The measurements were made at the beginning of the education program and at 3 and 6 months using the data collection tools. The data was evaluated using multidimensional variance analysis, the Bonferroni modified t measure, and regression analysis. Results: A significant difference was found among the experimental and the control group for total mean scores of the all scale. A high level, positive, and highly significant relationship was found between the education program and all scale. Conclusion: The results of the study indicated that the pediatric palliative care education program was an effective method that could be used in educating nursing students. The study provides effective results for including pediatric palliative care nursing course to the nursing undergraduate education curriculum.