Inadequate clinical preparation for palliative care is often reflected in inadequate education about death. Nursing students as nurses of the future, it is necessary to make them aware of death and overcome fear of it so that they can cope with their future careers and provide qualified and warmly care service.
Objectives: To determine the effect of death education course using constructivist learning theory on first grade undergraduate nursing student attitudes and coping abilities towards death.
Design: This study was designed using a mixed-methods design.
Setting: Two campuses of a university school of nursing in China.
Participants: First grade Bachelor of Nursing Science students (n = 191).
Methods: Data collection includes questionnaires and reflective writing as after class task. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test, and the Mann-Whitney U test. As for reflective writing, content analysis was hired to analysis.
Results: The intervention group's attitude towards death tended to be neutral acceptance. The intervention group's ability to deal with death (Z = -5.354, p < 0.001) and expression of thoughts about death (Z = -3.89 b, p < 0.001) greater than that of the control group. Four themes (Awareness of death before class, Knowledge, The meaning of palliative care, New cognition) were identified from reflecting writing.
Conclusion: Compared with the conventional teaching, death education course utilizing constructivist learning theory was found to be a more effective method for developing students' death coping skills and reducing fear of death.
Keywords: Constructivism theory; Death education; Mixed study design; Nursing student.
Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.