Browsing by Author "D'Souza, Cheryl"

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    Exploring Undergraduate Nursing Students' Experiences of End-of-Life Conversations
    (2022-10-18) D'Souza, Cheryl; Laing, Catherine; Raffin-Bouchal, Shelley; Moules, Nancy
    Nurses report that communicating with patients and families about End of Life (EOL) issues is one of the most challenging aspects of providing EOL care. Many nurses enter practice not feeling prepared or confident to talk about death and dying, and research related to how student nurses encounter EOL conversations in their practicums is lacking. We investigated final year undergraduate nursing students’ experiences of having EOL conversations with patients and family members in their clinical settings. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed using Braun and Clark’s (2006) framework of thematic analysis (TA). A total of five participant interviews were conducted and analysed to yield the following four themes: attitudes towards death and death talk; nursing students’ inner world during EOL conversations; recognizing, communicating, and responding to patients; and the student nurse role in EOL conversations. For nursing students, engaging in EOL conversations with patients and their families is experienced as a complex intellectual and emotional process. Students often fear saying the wrong thing and feel uncertain in knowing how to navigate these conversations. Implications for practice include addressing the gaps in EOL communication content and training in the nursing programs.