Miguel Fortin Magaña1, Susana Diaz2, Pablo Salazar-Colocho2, Ancu Feng2, Mario López-Saca2.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: International organisations recommend the inclusion of palliative care undergraduate education as a way to meet increasing demand; the long-term effects, however, are unknown. Since 2013 the Dr José Matías Delgado University has offered an undergraduate course for palliative care. AIMS: To assess whether a palliative care course results in improvement in self-perceived comfort among students and if it lasts up to 4 years later; and to examine students' knowledge of palliative care and assess the relationship between comfort and knowledge.
DESIGN: This is a prospective cohort study where students attending the course were requested to complete the Scale of Self-Perceived Comfort in palliative care pre and post course. Participants were contacted in 2018 and a group without palliative care education was established as a control group, matched one-to-one according to current academic level. They were asked to complete the Scale of Self-Perceived Comfort questionnaire together with the Palliative Care Knowledge Test. SETTINGS/PARTICIPANTS: 83 students who attended the course between the years 2014 and 2017 and 101 controls.
RESULTS: In the postcourse test, participants had a 1.13-point increase (p≤0.001) in comfort, which persisted 4 years later and was superior to the control group by 0.6 points (p≤0.001). The control group showed no difference in the precourse test despite having more clinical experience (p=0.68). The students outscored the control group in the knowledge test by 4.2 points (p≤0.001). There appears to be no correlation between comfort and knowledge.
CONCLUSION: A palliative care undergraduate course results in improvement in student comfort and knowledge which persists up to 4 years later. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
BACKGROUND: International organisations recommend the inclusion of palliative care undergraduate education as a way to meet increasing demand; the long-term effects, however, are unknown. Since 2013 the Dr José Matías Delgado University has offered an undergraduate course for palliative care. AIMS: To assess whether a palliative care course results in improvement in self-perceived comfort among students and if it lasts up to 4 years later; and to examine students' knowledge of palliative care and assess the relationship between comfort and knowledge.
DESIGN: This is a prospective cohort study where students attending the course were requested to complete the Scale of Self-Perceived Comfort in palliative care pre and post course. Participants were contacted in 2018 and a group without palliative care education was established as a control group, matched one-to-one according to current academic level. They were asked to complete the Scale of Self-Perceived Comfort questionnaire together with the Palliative Care Knowledge Test. SETTINGS/PARTICIPANTS: 83 students who attended the course between the years 2014 and 2017 and 101 controls.
RESULTS: In the postcourse test, participants had a 1.13-point increase (p≤0.001) in comfort, which persisted 4 years later and was superior to the control group by 0.6 points (p≤0.001). The control group showed no difference in the precourse test despite having more clinical experience (p=0.68). The students outscored the control group in the knowledge test by 4.2 points (p≤0.001). There appears to be no correlation between comfort and knowledge.
CONCLUSION: A palliative care undergraduate course results in improvement in student comfort and knowledge which persists up to 4 years later. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
Entities:
Keywords:
communication; education and training; symptoms and symptom management
Year: 2020
PMID： 33219104 DOI： 10.1136/bmjspcare-2020-002311
Source DB: PubMed Journal: BMJ Support Palliat Care ISSN： 2045-435X Impact factor: 3.568