Transforming nursing students’ attitudes toward death through the “caring for life in death” program: a quasi-experimental, longitudinal, mixed-methods study

Palliative care education may be insufficient, resulting in gaps in healthcare students’ knowledge and emotional management skills when caring for palliative patients and their families. Training programs addressing personal and professional limitations while promoting self-awareness and growth could help close these gaps. This quasi-experimental study investigated the effects of the “Caring for Life in Death” Program on perceptions of death, communication skills, and emotional self-regulation in healthcare students. Two hundred nine nursing students from the School of Health Sciences, Polytechnic Institute of Bragança were allocatd to a training group ( n = 115) or control group ( n = 94). Students in their first and second years completed a twelve-session “Caring for Life in Death” program. Data were collected through a semi-structured questionnaire and various scales, including the Abbreviated Death Fear Scale, Death Anxiety Questionnaire, and Brief Scales on Various Perspectives of Death. Participants in the training group demonstrated significant reductions in death-related fear and anxiety, alongside improved coping and reflective abilities, underscoring the importance of enhancing palliative care training to strengthen emotional resilience. The findings have significant implications for palliative care education and the well-being of healthcare students.