Attitude and feelings of Nursing students towards end-of-life care

Section: Originals

How to quote

Ribada Fraga D, Esperón Rodríguez I, del Campo Pérez V. Actitud y sentimientos de estudiantes de Enfermería frente a los cuidados al final de la vida. Metas Enferm dic 2018/ene 2019; 21(10):12-7.

Authors

David Ribada Fraga1, Irene Esperón Rodríguez2, Víctor del Campo Pérez1,3

Position

1Graduado en Enfermería. Escuela Universitaria de Enfermería Meixoeiro. Universidad de Vigo 2Licenciada en Psicología. Unidad de Cuidados Paliativos. Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de Vigo. Servizo Galego de Saude. Vigo 3Licenciado en Medicina. Especialista en Medicina Preventiva. Servicio de Medicina Preventiva y Prevención de Riesgos Laborales. Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de Vigo. Servizo Galego de Saude. Vigo

Contact address

Víctor del Campo Pérez. C/ Zaragoza, 3. 36203 Vigo (Pontevedra).

Contact email: victor.delcampo.perez@sergas.es

Abstract

Objective: to explore the attitude and feelings of Nursing students towards care at death, as well as differences according to demographical characteristics, previous experience with death, and clinical practices completed.
Method: a descriptive cross-sectional study on Nursing students from Universities of Galicia, through the validated FATCOD-S scale. Other variables were: age, gender, school, academic course, residential environment at childhood, previous experience with end of life, and if they had already completed clinical practices. An open question was included regarding their feelings towards the subject of the study. Bivariate analysis was conducted through Student’s t, ANOVA or Mann-Whitney’s U tests, and Spearman Correlation Coefficient. .
Results: there were answers by 463 students. The overall mean score in the FATCOD scale was 98.1. Students in their 1st year who were ≤20-year-old presented statistically lower values than older students, both in Factor I (p= 0.014) and in Factor II (p= 0.04); they had higher scores in both factors (p= 0.02) if they declared having had previous experiences. An increasing gradient was found between the scores in both factors and the academic year (p< 0.001). In terms of feelings, four categories were identified: sadness and anxiety when faced with death; lack of experience and/or training; satisfaction and personal pride; and empathy, respect and relief.
Conclusions: nursing students in Galicia presented a positive attitude towards end-of-life care. Age and previous experience represented key factors, as well as having completed clinical practices.

Keywords:

death; palliative care; nursing students; research; cross-sectional study; cross-sectional study

Versión en Español

Título:

Actitud y sentimientos de estudiantes de Enfermería frente a los cuidados al final de la vida