Effectiveness of a perinatal and pediatric End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) curricula integration. (June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: O'Shea, Eileen R.; Campbell, Suzanne Hetzel; Engler, Arthur J.; Beauregard, Rachel; Chamberlin, Elizabeth C.; Currie, Leanne M.
• Is Part Of: Nurse education today. Volume 35:Number 6(2015:Jun.)
• Page Start: 765
• Page End: 770
• Publication Date: 2015-06
• Subjects: Pediatric -- Perinatal -- Palliative -- End-of-life nursing education -- ELNEC curriculum integration; Nursing -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Education, Nursing -- Periodicals; Soins infirmiers -- Étude et enseignement -- Périodiques; Nursing -- Study and teaching; Periodicals; 610.7307
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nedt.2015.02.015
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0260-6917

Abstract

Summary: Background: Educational practices and national guidelines for best practices of providing palliative care to children and their families have been developed and are gaining support; however, the dissemination of those practices lags behind expectations. Incorporating education for pediatric palliative care into nursing pre-licensure programs will provide guidelines for best practices with opportunities to enact them prior to graduation. Objective: To evaluate the effect of an integrated curriculum for palliative care on nursing students' knowledge. Design: Matched pretest–posttest. Setting: One private and one public university in the northeastern United States. Participants: Two groups of baccalaureate nursing students, one exposed to an integrated curriculum for palliative care and one without the same exposure. Methods: Pre-testing of the students with a 50-item multiple choice instrument prior to curriculum integration and post-testing with the same instrument at the end of the term. Results: This analysis demonstrated changes in knowledge scores among the experimental ( n = 40) and control ( n = 19) groups that were statistically significant by time (Wilks' Lambda = .90, F (1, 57) = 6.70, p = .012) and study group (Wilks' Lambda = .83, F (1, 57) = 11.79, p = .001). Conclusions: An integrated curriculum for pediatric and perinatal palliative and end-of-life care can demonstrate an increased knowledge in a small convenience sample of pre-licensure baccalaureate nursing students when compared to a control group not exposed to the same curriculum. Future research can examine the effect on graduates' satisfaction with program preparation for this specialty area; the role of the use of the curriculum with practice-partners to strengthen transfer of knowledge to the clinical environment; and the use of this curriculum interprofessionally.