Correlation between hospice competence and death coping ability among nursing students in China: A cross-sectional survey

Palliative care involves providing comprehensive physical, psychological, and social care to improve clinical symptoms and quality of life, as well as to ensure patients' dignity at the end of life. Nurses are important members of hospice care teams, and undergraduate nursing students are the hospice care providers of the future. The ability of undergraduate nursing students to provide hospice care will, thus, directly affect service quality. To understand the relationship between hospice competence and the death-coping abilities of nursing students and provide a theoretical basis for promoting the development of hospice education for nursing students. A convenience sample of 204 nursing students from a university in China completed the general conditions questionnaire, Hospice Competency Assessment Questionnaire, and a simplified version of the Coping with Death Scale. The participants' overall average hospice competency score was 46 (35–52), with an average score of 3.0 (2.3–3.3) for effective caregiving skills, 2.6 (2.0–3.0) for cultural and ethical values, and 3.0 (2.2–3.4) for interprofessional teamwork. The average death-coping competency score was 92 (72–107). Multivariate logistic regression and Spearman's correlation analysis showed a positive correlation between death-coping and hospice competencies (P < 0.05). Nursing students' overall hospice competency is low to moderate. Consequently, nurse educators should effectively modify the hospice education curriculum using the Dedicated Education Unit model.