Assessment of Primary Palliative Care Content Within Prelicensure Nursing Education: A Multisite Feasibility Study

Primary palliative care education should be provided within prelicensure programs to maximize nurses' preparation to care for patients with serious, life-limiting illness before entering professional practice settings. Curricula need to be assessed to identify current content integration across nursing programs. The specific aim of this feasibility study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a survey methodology to assess primary palliative care content integration within prelicensure nursing curricula in multiple programs. A secondary aim was to compare content integration across nursing programs. Faculty teaching in prelicensure courses at 3 accredited nursing programs were recruited to complete a 50-item curriculum assessment survey based on the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium Undergraduate Curriculum. Response rates were 73%, 26.7%, and 18.8%, respectively. All content areas were reported as being taught by at least 1 faculty member per institution. Lecture was the primary pedagogy to teach all End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium Undergraduate content areas, followed by clinical conference/debriefing and simulation. Content was primarily taught in Critical Care, Maternity, Adult Health, Gerontology, and Fundamentals courses. The disparate response rates suggest that survey dissemination may prove ineffective for multisite curricula evaluation. Implications for nursing education and clinical practice will be discussed.