The Effects of Simulation and Case Study Methods of Instruction on Undergraduate Nursing Students' Knowledge and Attitudes on Palliative Care

Myers, Alice (Author); The Catholic University of America (Degree granting institution); Wall, Shavaun (Thesis advisor); Convey, John (Committee member); Cave, Agnes (Committee member); Jairath, Nalini (Committee member); Sheilds, Joesph (Committee member)

Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Education. The Catholic University of America

133

Educational psychology; Nursing; Attitude, Authentic, Experiential, Knowledge, Palliative Care, Undergraduate Nursing Students; Education

http://hdl.handle.net/1961/cuislandora:72113

http://hdl.handle.net/1961/cuislandora:72113

Attitude; Authentic; Experiential; Knowledge; Palliative Care; Undergraduate Nursing Students

2017-01-01T00:00:00Z

2018-01-01T00:00:00Z

Nurses educated in palliative care are needed to care for an aging United States population. This exploratory pre- and post-test control group experiment compared two enhanced interventions (lecture with case study, lecture with simulation) and one control-group intervention (lecture only) to determine impacts on undergraduate nursing students’ knowledge and attitudes about palliative care. Thirty-six (26%) out of 139 undergraduate nursing students in an urban university in the mid-Atlantic region participated. Subjects completed pre-intervention instruments, participated in the interventions, and then completed the post-intervention instruments. The three instruments were a subject information form (demographic information, non-academic palliative and end-of-life care experience), Palliative Care Quiz for Nurses (Ross, McDonald, & McGuinness, 1996) and Attitude Toward Care of the Dying Scale (Frommelt, 1991). The lecture and case study intervention applied experiential learning by having subjects read a patient’s history and participate in an instructor-facilitated discussion about the patient’s palliative care needs. The lecture and simulation intervention, conducted in an authentic learning environment, asked subjects to provide palliative care to a simulated patient. While both knowledge and attitude scores increased in all interventions, no group was significantly higher in analyses of post-intervention data. Within groups, the lecture with case study intervention had a significant impact on knowledge in the pre- to post-comparison. The lecture only intervention produced significant differences between the pre- and post-scores on the psychosocial knowledge subcategory. The lecture only intervention had a significant impact on subjects’ attitudes in the pre to post comparison. The frequency of church attendance predicted philosophy and principles subcategory scores and was close to being a significant predictor of total knowledge scores. Experience providing palliative care in the clinical setting was a predictor for psychosocial scores. No demographic variables were predictors of attitude scores.Future research comparing case studies and simulation should incorporate authentic evaluation of clinical performance in addition to knowledge tests.

Dissertation

Myers_cua_0043A_10842.pdf

The Catholic University of America

2018