Degree Name
Nursing Practice, DNP
Publication Date
8-5-2024
Upload Date
2024
First Advisor
Linda Latting
Second Advisor
Lisa Drake
Abstract
Providing compassionate and effective end-of-life care is a crucial skill for Family Nurse Practitioners (FNP) students (Collins & Small, 2019). However, many students experience significant anxiety and lack confidence in such challenging situations. The problem identified for the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Quality Improvement (QI) project is the lack of training focused on end-of-life care in the FNP program at a College of Nursing (CON) within an academic clinical center. The project’s purpose was to improve confidence and anxiety levels among FNP students in providing end-of-life care. The project aimed to create an inventive and immersive end-of-life simulation with 22 FNP students, where faculty members role-played as the patient and a family member. A pre-survey and post-survey were administered using the Nursing Anxiety and Self-Confidence with Clinical Making© (NASC-CDM©) scale to assess students’ anxiety and confidence associated with clinical decision-making during the simulation. Understanding the impact of the simulation on students’ anxiety, confidence, clinical decision-making, and communication skills will help faculty determine its potential integration into the program. Data analysis included a paired samples t-test and a Wilcoxon signed rank test. Statistical significance was demonstrated for confidence by the Wilcoxon signed rank test with a V statistic of 49.00, z of -2.09, and p-value of 0.036. Clinical significance was indicated by Cohen’s d of 0.34 for confidence and 0.21 for anxiety, representing small effect sizes. The results from the QI project support incorporating an end-of-life simulation into the FNP program to improve confidence and anxiety among FNP students.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Jamison, Deborah, "Enhancing Family Nurse Practitioner Education Through End-of-Life Simulation: A Quality Improvement Project" (2024). Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects. 85.
https://arch.astate.edu/dnp-projects/85
