Promoting Death Literacy in Palliative Care Nursing Education Using Narrative Pedagogy

Undergraduate nursing students develop their training in a real context, where they are frequently confronted with clinical cases of clients in the end-of-life process but feel uncomfortable with palliative and end-of-life care. This pre–post study with a pre-experimental design evaluated the impact of an educational intervention on nursing students and their compassion levels, spiritual preparedness, and attitudes toward death. A total of 62 students participated in a training program consisting of 25 contact hours based on narrative pedagogy (theoretical and practical classes). The results showed that educational intervention positively impacted different dimensions, particularly self-compassion and spirituality, as well as reduced fear of death and increased neutral acceptance. Nursing education should prioritize the inclusion of death, dying, and end-of-life care across the nursing curriculum’s fundamental courses.