Students' Confidence and Interest in Palliative and Bereavement Care: A European Study.

Hod Orkibi,Melania Raccichini,Krzysztof Mariusz Ciepliñski,Mihaela Dana Bucuţã,Silvia Varani,Michael Alexander Wieser,Raluca Sassu,Luca Franchini,Ines Testoni,Gianmarco Biancalani,Alexandra Leitner,Bracha Azoulay

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.616526

Abstract

As part of a European Erasmus Plus project entitled Death Education for Palliative Psychology, this study assessed the ways in which Master’s Degree students in psychology and the creative arts therapies self-rated their confidence and interest in death education and palliative and bereavement care. In five countries (Austria, Israel, Italy, Poland, Romania), 344 students completed an online questionnaire, and 37 students were interviewed to better understand their views, interest, and confidence. The results revealed some significant differences between countries, and showed that older respondents with previous experience as formal caregivers for end-of-life clients showed greater interest in obtaining practical clinical competence in these fields. A mediation analysis indicated that students’ previous care experiences and past loss experiences were related to students’ current interest in death education and palliative and bereavement care through the mediation of their sense of confidence in this field. The qualitative findings identified five shared themes: life and death, learning about death, the psychological burden, personal experience and robust training, and four key training needs. Overall, students’ interest in studying and working with terminal illness and death are rooted in internal resources, a preliminary sense of confidence, but also external requirements.

Highlights

Coping with death, including end of life management and the process of mourning, constitute ongoing challenges in contemporary society (Fonseca and Testoni, 2012; Testoni et al, 2016)
The online questionnaire included the following demographic questions: age, gender, marital status, religion, level of observance, field of BA degree and whether the curriculum included any of the following course topics: death education, bereavement, loss, grief, palliative care, creative arts therapies, psychodrama, or none of these
All the students were asked about the general topics of the project: obtaining practical clinical skills for working with clients coping with end-of life conditions and/or bereavement, acquiring theoretical knowledge about end-of-life conditions and/or bereavement, working with these clients, and learning about arts therapies and/or psychodrama interventions for these clients

Summary

Introduction

Coping with death, including end of life management and the process of mourning, constitute ongoing challenges in contemporary society (Fonseca and Testoni, 2012; Testoni et al, 2016). One way to address this challenge in higher education is through death education (DeEd; termed “thanatology”). It can serve to increase students’ awareness of the distress associated with loss and bereavement and hone their skills in death management (Testoni et al, 2019c). This international study is part of a larger project supported by the Erasmus plus program of the European Union. The overarching aim of the project is to explore how DeEd can inform palliative

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