Death education in baccalaureate nursing programs.

Abstract

These findings reveal that an emphasis on death and dying in baccalaureate nursing schools has definitely increased over the past 20 years. Ninety-five percent of the schools reported here have some emphasis on death and dying. The majority of nursing students take the death and dying offerings. Overwhelmingly, the professional background of the instructor is nursing. While only 5 percent of the schools do not offer anything in death and dying, nearly half of these plan to offer something "within the next five years." If death and dying offerings influence students' attitudes, as is suggested in research cited above, baccalaureate nursing programs in the United States apparently have taken positive steps toward helping nurses cope with dying over the past 20 years. If nurses themselves cannot deal with death, caring for a dying patient may be difficult. With continued increased emphasis on death and dying in nursing curricula, both nurses, patients, and patients' families will hopefully benefit.