Impact on Self-Efficacy on End of Life Care Discussions: Before and after Structured Educational Training on Licensed Nurses

Abstract

Nurses played an essential role in initiating end of life care discussions. Initiating advance discussions on end of life care options provides the patient and family the opportunity to start the process of preparing and planning end of life care. The discussions included choosing options specific to their own needs, goals, wishes, and preferences. Research studies findings demonstrated an evident lack of end of life care discussions and advance care planning initiation by nurses because of reported lack of education, training, and skills in this topic. The following DNP project used a quantitative, comparative, quasi-experimental before and after design to evaluate changes in the licensed nurses' self-efficacy in conducting end of life care discussions. The Advance Care Planning Self-Efficacy Scale was used to compare the licensed nurses' self-efficacy in conducting end of life care discussions before and after completing a structured educational activity. The data collected from the surveys were analyzed using a Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test matched-pair revealed a statistically significant change in advance care planning self-efficacy scores following completion of the structured educational training on end of life care discussions. The DNP project findings demonstrated that structured education that includes allowing licensed nurses to practice end of life care conversations improved licensed nurses' self-efficacy in conducting these conversations, filling a gap in the research literature. A further research study that measures the frequency of licensed nurses' holding end of life care conversation will be beneficial for future research.