Baccalaureate nursing students' attitudes toward end of life care: The impact of simulation-based learning

Abstract

All nurses may be obliged to care for patients at the end of life. Baccalaureate nursing education should prepare nurses to provide this care, but best practice for end of life care education has not been established. Nurses are not adequately prepared to care for dying patients and grieving families. This research study explored the effectiveness of low-fidelity simulation-based learning (SBL) activities on improving baccalaureate nursing students’ attitudes toward end of life care. Junior-level baccalaureate nursing students participated in this quasi-experimental study. A standardized tool assessed students’ attitudes toward end of life care before and after the SBL activities. While a statistically significant difference was not found between the pretest and posttest scores, there is evidence of learning as a result of the low-fidelity SBL activities. Several individual items in the tool showed statistically significant improvement in scores. Other items showed some improvement. These score improvements imply clinical significance, positively impacting the care delivered by the participants to patients at the end of life and their families. The results of this study contribute to the body of knowledge surrounding low-fidelity SBL activities as well as low-fidelity SBL activities in end of life care nursing education.