Theoretical Construction And Experimental Study Of Death Education Curriculum For Nurses’ Continuing Education

AimsThe aims of this study is to apply the principles of curriculum to construct death educationcurriculum for nurses’ continuing education, which integrats elemental components such ascurriculum objectives, curriculum content, feedback&assessment procedures, teaching&learning methods and teachers’ qualification. The plan of the curriculum provides theuseful guidance for related nursing educators.Content and MethodsThe research is categorized into four parts.1. Theoretical construction of death education curriculum for nurses’ continuing educationThrough literature review of research and development of death education domesticallyand abroad, ideas from theories of curriculum design were borrowed, including the TylerRationale, Bloom’s taxonomy theory and Constructivist learning theory to construct thecurriculum design procedure and main components of the curriculum.2. Constructing a draft of the curriculum plan.The prior study on training knowledge of death education for nurses provides mainreference for designing curriculum objectives and curriculum content. Qualitative researchand experts’ conferences were conducted based on theoretical construction of deatheducation curriculum to form the preliminary curriculum plan.3. Development of questionnairesBased on literature review, a cross-sectional survey was carried out through experts’consultation and pre-test to develop the questionnaires for curriculum evaluation. TheFrommelt Attitude Toward Care of the Dying Scale Chinese version and the Chineseversion of Death Attitude Profile Revised proved good content validity and reliability.Besides, the death education curriculum evaluation questionnaire was designed. They areall used as evaluation tools for the experiment stage.4. Conducting experimental studyTo examine the effectiveness and feasibility of the curriculum plan, a design ofpretest-posttest experiment with control group was performed in an Emergency Depart.,with a good result. During this course, a national Continuing Medical Education program was hold by our research team and part of the courses are just the part of our experiment’s,so we evaluated the nurses of the program before and after taking the courses, with asimilar result. Therefore, the curriculum plan was proposed.Results1. Theoretical Construction of Death Education Curriculum for Nurses’ ContinuingEducationIntegrating the Tyler Rationale, Bloom’s taxonomy theory and Constructivist learningtheory to the curriculum design, we constructed the death education curriculum designprocedure and main components of the curriculum.2. Results of experimental studyQuantity data of experiment showed that post-test scores of attitude toward care of thedying in experimental group were higher than those in the control group (p<0.001). Thenumber of nurses with positive attitudes in the experimental group is more than that in thecontrol group (p=0.035). Post-test scores of the experimental group lowed in fear of death,death avoidance and rised in nautral acceptance. The feedback questionnaire showednecessity, effectiveness and popularity of the curriculum.Qualitative data of experiment showed that the curriculum is effective in changing theirdeath attitudes and attitudes toward care of the dying. Suggestions are given as follows:The content should be feasible and practical; time arrangement should be flexible; teachingmethods should be interactive and interesting.Data of experiment showed that post-test scores of attitude toward care of the dying werehigher than pre-test (p<0.001). The number of nurses with positive attitudes raised(p=0.009). Post-test scores lowed in Death Avoidance. The feedback questionnaire showedaccordance with the experimental results.3. The plan is designed for nurses’ continuing education, and comprised curriculumobjectives, curriculum content, feedback&assessment procedures, teaching&learningmethods and teachers’ qualification.ConclusionsNowadays, chronic diseases such as heart and blood vessels illness or Malignant Tumorillness have become the main reason of death, thus, the quality of death and deatheducation have been paid more and more attention. To educate nurses is the prerequisite foreducating patients and their family. The study constructed death education curriculum for nurses’ continuing education, which integrating elemental components such as curriculumobjectives, curriculum content, feedback&assessment procedures, teaching&learningmethods and teachers’ qualification, which may provide the useful guidance for furtherstudy and education in this field.