ABSTRACT
Palliative care is an important aspect of nursing when comfort and quality of life are the patient goals. The End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) developed a comprehensive program of teaching care of the dying to nurses and nursing students. This pretest-posttest study evaluated the influence of the integration of the ELNEC curriculum into a baccalaureate nursing program on students' attitudes toward care of the dying. The Frommelt Attitudes toward Care of the Dying Scale for nurses (FATCOD) was administered to traditional and accelerated baccalaureate students before and after exposure to a nursing curriculum that integrated essential ELNEC elements. Multiple regression analyses indicated that no previous experience with death and an age of 18-22 accounted for the most variance in attitude change. The findings suggest that integrating the ELNEC curriculum throughout a baccalaureate program positively affects the attitudes of nursing students toward the care of patients who are dying.
Subject(s)
Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate , Palliative Care/psychology , Students, Nursing/psychology , Adolescent , Adult , Attitude to Death , Curriculum , Humans , Regression AnalysisABSTRACT
This ethnographic study examined the symmetry (active listening)/asymmetry (dominance) of nurse-patient communication. A convenience sample of 20 gendered nurse-patient pairs from two community hospitals participated. Eleven discourse modes emerged from taped conversations between nurses and patients. In many nurse-patient interactions, nurses demonstrated symmetry; however, symmetry and asymmetry changed throughout the conversation. Nurses often missed cues that patients needed someone to listen to their concerns. Staff development implications include teaching strategies that increase symmetrical nurse-patient communication.
