Enhancing Nurses' Comfort and Capability With End-of-Life Care for Patients With Cancer.
Mary Elizabeth Davis
PMID 35939732WHAT IT FOUND
Nurses using a new end-of-life order set reported higher comfort and capability than those who did not.
However, viewing the educational module alone made no difference. This reflects staff perceptions, not patient outcomes.
Key findings
01Nurses who interfaced with the order set had statistically higher comfort and capability scores than those who did not.
02There was no significant difference in scores between nurses who reviewed the educational module and those who did not.
03Nurses with prior End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium training had significantly higher mean scores.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study measured nurses' self-reported feelings of comfort and capability, not actual patient outcomes or care quality. The survey response rate was low (23.1% of eligible staff), so results may not represent the whole nursing workforce. The survey instrument had not been tested for reliability or validity. The study design cannot determine if the order set caused the change in nurse perceptions or if nurses who already felt more capable were more likely to use it.
Declared interests
The paper does not report funding sources or conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret higher nurse comfort scores as evidence that patient end-of-life care improved. The study measured staff perceptions, not patient outcomes, and the survey tool was not validated.