Undergraduate final year nursing students’ attitudes toward caring for dying patients: Bahrain’s experience

Abstract

Background: Nursing students are frequently exposed to dying patients during their clinical placement. Research studies that examined nursing students’ attitudes toward caring for dying patients were limited in the Gulf Region, including Bahrain.Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes of fourth-year baccalaureate nursing students regarding caring for dying patients.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional design was utilized to recruit a convenience sample of fifty-four nursing students. Frommelt’s Attitudes towards Caring of the Dying (FATCOD) five Likert scale was used.Results: The overall findings revealed that participants had a neutral attitude toward caring for dying patients. The overall attitudes mean score was 3.4 ± 0.3. The majority of participants were female (83%, n = 45). The difference in the mean score in relation to gender was statistically significant (p = .049). Although the majority of all participants (80%) reported having dealt with the terminally ill people in the past, the association between previous experience and reported attitudes was not statistically significant (p = .31).Conclusions and recommendations: Literature revealed that students who received end of life education where found to have positive attitudes. Therefore, it’s crucial to introduce a standalone educational module regarding end of life care early on in the undergraduate curriculum. It is recommended that future studies recruit nursing students from other baccalaureate year levels to reassess the attitudes and level of preparedness following a curriculum reform and implementation of end of life care education. Additionally, a qualitative research method is recommended to explore the lived experience of the nursing students when they are caring for dying patients.

Attitude and Associated Factors Toward end of Life Care among Nurses Working in Kuwait Hospitals: A Cross-sectional Study

“…In the same assertion, nurses’ attitudes toward EOL care correlate with the years of experience; nurses with more experience developed a more favourable attitude toward death and dying. This affirms the findings from previous studies; [ 12 , 26 , 27 ] one possible explanation for this finding is that nurses with more experience might have cumulative skills and wider experiences in caring for dying patients while advancing in their careers. Novice nurses might need more time to cope with caring for dying patients.…”

Nursing Students’ Views about Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders: Quasi-Experimental Study

“…Nearly half of the students in both groups reported that they have worked with a terminal period patient and his family, also students in IG group had less difficulty talking with the patient about death than CG. In one study, nearly all of the nursing students reported having previous experience in dealing with terminally ill people, and they also stated they had neutral attitudes toward caring for dying patients (Yaqoob et al, 2018). In another study, last year nursing students developed positive attitudes toward dying in the field of palliative care education (Grubb & Arthur, 2016).…”

“…They also developed a great deal of knowledge and skills and they might have more experiences and opinions about the DNR than the other students. Also, several previous studies about end of Life Care and DNR recruited students in their final year (Bailey & Hewison, 2014;Jafari et al, 2015;Yaqoob et al, 2018). Participants (n = 213) were divided into interventional group (IG) (n = 106) and control group (CG) (n = 107) according to selection of elective course of palliative care by voluntarily.…”

“…They also developed a great deal of knowledge and skills and they might have more experiences and opinions about the DNR than the other students. Also, several previous studies about end of Life Care and DNR recruited students in their final year (Bailey & Hewison, 2014; Jafari et al, 2015; Yaqoob et al, 2018).…”

Nurses' Attitude Toward End of Life Care in Emergency Departement and Intensive Care Unit In Rural Hospital

“…Nurses also seldom discussed with patients and family about the feelings because of the lack of privacy in ED (Decker et al, 2015). Barriers and obstacles in EOLC can affect the ability of nurses to communicate with patients and families regarding EOLC (Gurung & Timalsina, 2018) According to Yaqoob et al (2018), there was a relationship between gender and the attitude of nursing students towards EOLC. Other studies also revealed that women are considered to have a more positive attitude towards caring for dying patients than men (Lancaster et al, 2017).…”