Teaching End-of-Life Care Using Interprofessional Simulation

Background: Competency in end-of-life (EOL) care is a growing expectation for health professions students. This study assessed the impact of four EOL care scenarios, using high-fidelity simulation, on the perceived learning needs and attitudes of pharmacy and nursing students. Method: On three campuses, pharmacy students (N = 158) were exposed to standard paper EOL case scenarios, while a fourth campus exposed eight graduate nursing and 37 graduate pharmacy students to simulated versions of the same cases. Results: The paper-based groups produced similar pre-post changes on the End of Life Professional Caregiver Survey. Results were pooled and compared with the simulation-only group, revealing significantly higher changes in pre-post scores for the simulation group. Conclusion: Students participating in the simulation group showed some significant differences in attitudes toward EOL care, compared with students in the classroom setting.