The effects of death education used in a master's degree in palliative care on attitudes toward caring for terminally ill patients.

e19549 Background: The challenge of achieving an objective evaluation of End of Life Care educational outcomes, remains an open question. This study sought to determine the effectiveness of an education program used in a master's degree in Palliative Care. The program, developed in Italy at “Tor Vergata” University of Rome and at ANTEA Formad of Rome, included a didactic and the experiential death education. The didactic approach (involving, for example, lectures and audiovisual presentations) is meant to improve knowledge. The experiential approach (including personal sharing of experiences in group discussion, role-playing, and a variety of other simulation exercises) is used to actively involve participants by evoking feelings and thereby permitting death-related attitudes to be modified. Methods: The Frommelt Attitude Toward Care of the Dying Scale (FATCOD) FormB italian version, and demographic questionnaire that includes sex, age, occupation, years of service, previous work experience with the terminally ill, were designed by the researcher to assess attitudes. Participants were administered the questionnaires at the time of placement tests and at the end of the course. Results: Data were collected from 21 partecipants, 16 physicians and 5 nurses, female 76%, 43% aged 36 to 45, 42% worked in palliative care, 63% seniority for ≥ 5 years, with more than 76% of working experience with the terminally ill patients. All partecipants completed the tool. Compared by a t-test, the scores were significantly higher after participation in this educational program. These findings support the hypothesis that partecipants have a more positive attitude toward caring for terminally ill patients after their participation in this program. The only demographic information which demonstrated any significant relationship to the attitudes was that of age, professional experience and previous education on death and dying. Conclusions: The FATCOD FormB was found to be a valid and reliable tool. The Tor Vergata - Antea master's degree in Palliative Care provides sufficient time to address the complex issues of death attitudes and to bring about attitude changes.