Evaluation of End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium-Geriatric Train-the-Trainer Program in Korea

Abstract

Background: Few nurses are trained in palliative care for long?term care in Korea. The End?of?Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC)?Geriatric training program improves nurses’ ability to promote palliative care for the elderly. Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate nurses’ satisfaction and knowledge following the attendance at the ELNEC?Geriatric curriculum on nurses’ knowledge of palliative care. Methods: Nine ELNECGeriatric modules were presented to 203 interdisciplinary professionals on July 1 and 3, 2010, in Seoul, South Korea. The Palliative care quiz for nursing (PCQN) was used to evaluate nurses’ knowledge. Of all the participants, 128 nurses were completed the questionnaire. Of these nurses, 45.2% were staff nurses and 73.4% were hospital nurses. Results: Approximately eight nine percent of the nurses reported previous experience in caring for dying patients and attending various hospice palliative care training programs. Overall program satisfaction of the participants was 4.03 on a 5?point scale, and their mean of the total PCQN score was 12.75 out of 20 after participating in ELNEC?Geriatric course, which was a significant improvement (p=.022) from the pretest. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate that ELNEC?Geriatric curriculum was successfully implemented and significantly contributed to increasing the nurses’ knowledge for palliative care in long?term care in Korea.