title: Assessment of a learning intervention in palliative care based on clinical simulations for nursing students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Major deficiencies exist in undergraduate nursing education for Palliative Care. Opportunities to care for dying patients are often unavailable to students in traditional clinical settings. Palliative care simulation is an innovative strategy that may help to prepare undergraduate nursing students to provide quality palliative/end of life care. It is valuable to explore the student nurses' beliefs, feelings and satisfaction regarding the impact that simulation clinic applied to palliative care has and how it influenced their overall experience of caring for a dying patient and the patient's family. This study aimed to evaluate a learning intervention in palliative care using a low-fidelity clinical simulation for undergraduate nursing students from a Spanish university, based on the analytics of their expectations and learning objectives.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty-eight students participated in this mixed descriptive design study, they participated in a palliative care simulation scenario and completed three questionnaires which assess the knowledge and expectations before the simulation and the subsequent satisfaction with the performance and learning received.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The intervention in question met students' learning expectations, singling out social abilities as important tools in palliative care training, and the students were satisfied with the presented case studies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that low-fidelity clinical simulation intervention training in palliative care is an appropriate and low-cost tool for acquiring competitive skills. Learning in the simulation scenarios provides a mechanism for students to improve student communication skills.
authors: Department of Nursing, University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain. Electronic address: carmen.sarabia@unican.es.
authors: Carmen María
authors: CM
authors: Sarabia-Cobo
authors: Department of Nursing, University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain.
authors: Ana Rosa
authors: AR
authors: Alconero-Camarero
authors: Department of Nursing, University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain.
authors: Lucía
authors: L
authors: Lavín-Alconero
authors: Cantabrian Health Service, Santander, Cantabria, Spain.
authors: Isabel
authors: I
authors: Ibáñez-Rementería
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology; D003142:Communication; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate / Q000379:methods*; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D064946:Hospice and Palliative Care Nursing / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration; D000066908:Simulation Training / Q000379:methods*; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000458:organization & administration
keywords: Clinical simulation; End-of-life; Nursing education; Nursing student; Palliative care