A qualitative exploration of Irish nursing students' experiences of caring for the dying patient

To explore Irish nursing students' experiences of caring for dying patients and their families to understand these experiences and determine whether or not students felt prepared for this role.

This study used a qualitative descriptive research design.

One to one semi-structured interviews were used to collect data, implementing open-ended questions to explore seven student nurses' experiences.

Five main themes emerged: Student's first experiences, emotional experience of caring, educational preparation, challenging aspects of caring for dying patients and their families and need for support in practice. Students' first experience of caring for a dying patient and their family was a confronting event for students, both personally and professionally. Nursing students require adequate and timely education on end of life care and a practical and supportive clinical learning environment to effectively support and prepare students for caring for a dying patient and their family.