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

SummaryBackgroundEducational 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.ObjectiveTo evaluate the effect of an integrated curriculum for palliative care on nursing students' knowledge.DesignMatched pretest–posttest.SettingOne private and one public university in the northeastern United States.ParticipantsTwo groups of baccalaureate nursing students, one exposed to an integrated curriculum for palliative care and one without the same exposure.MethodsPre-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.ResultsThis 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).ConclusionsAn 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.