Date of Conferral
4-7-2025
Date of Award
April 2025
Degree
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
School
Nursing
Advisor
Andrea Jennings
Abstract
End-of-life (EOL) care is given to patients and their families near the end of the patient’s life or when a patient or family member chooses to stop any treatment they are receiving to either cure or control their disease process. Having discussions regarding end-of-life and dying has proven to be difficult and uncomfortable for most healthcare professionals, whether they are providers or nurses at the bedside. Part of the reason for the discomfort in having these discussions is twofold. First, healthcare professionals are trained to do what they can to save a person's life. Therefore, there is a lack of education and focus on having conversations regarding death and dying with dignity and how to provide compassionate and quality EOL patient care. Second, as individuals, we find it uncomfortable to think or talk about death, which leads to a gap in the healthcare system between one's knowledge of their feelings on death and dying and then being able to have open and honest communication with a patient and their family regarding how the patient would like to die. The goal of this project is to provide an expert-evaluated educational toolkit for nurses that will help to bridge the gap between the nurses and providing dignified EOL care. The majority (62.5%) of an interprofessional expert panel (N = 8) provided agreement that the toolkit would be effective in EOL care. Bridging this gap will also promote a positive social change in communication between nurses and patients, allowing for less conflict between healthcare teams along with avoiding poor timing in EOL discussions. Increasing one’s knowledge in EOL care provides the nurse with a foundation that will help them to facilitate allowing the patients to have the ability to die with dignity which in turn will help the family to avoid having feelings of guilt over the decision to move forward with EOL care for their family member.
Recommended Citation
McClain, Kari, "Development of End-of-Life Educational Module for Nurses" (2025). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 17564.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/17564
