Student nurses' attitudes and perceptions towards the care of dying patients

Abstract

Student nurses often experience unpleasant experiences and emotions when dealing with care of the dying person. As a consequence such feelings and experiences may have a negative impact on the nurses' and student nurses' attitudes and perceptions towards caring for dying patients. This descriptive non experimental quantitative study aimed to explore student nurses' attitudes to, and perceptions of care of the dying. Data was collected by means of a self administered questionnaire among 34 third year B.Sc. nursing students selected through convenience sampling, and a full response rate was achieved. Data obtained was analyzed using descriptive statistics and open ended questions were analyzed by means of content analysis. Findings from this study indicate that student nurses have relatively positive attitudes towards the care of dying patients. However, they appear to encounter feelings of inexperience, personal inadequacy and discomfort when caring for dying persons, and findings further reveal how these students experience difficulty in mainly communicating with the dying patient and relatives, in dealing with emotions and having the constant presence of the dying person's relatives. Student nurses feel that they lack the adequate education and support for the provision of end of life care. The students suggested several supportive strategies, which they believe that could help them when caring for dying patients and these include more educational content related to end of life care, sharing of experiences and emotions, and support from other members of staff. This study highlights limitations within nursing education and practice and provides suggestions for improvement. The findings of this study are discussed and several recommendations for education, practice, management and further research are given at the end of this dissertation.