J Nurs Educ
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Advanced practice nurses (APRNs) have key roles in the care of patients who are nearing death and those living with a disabling chronic disease. This article describes a mixed-method formative assessment of 36 graduate nursing students' knowledge about and attitudes toward palliative care preliminary to curricular integration of the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) graduate core modules. Students' knowledge about palliative care was assessed using the 106-item ELNEC examination. ⋯ Results revealed students' limited knowledge about palliative care. Qualitative findings indicated that most students exclusively linked palliative care with end-of-life care and believed that the treatment they provide should have the goal of prolonging life over maintaining quality of life. Implications for curriculum design, advanced practice role development, and collaboration with community health partners are discussed.
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A graduate course on cultural diversity, based in constructivist theory and structured on the Process of Cultural Competence in the Delivery of Healthcare Services model, was developed and taught through classroom and online methods. The following research questions were explored: 1) Can an educational experience, built on constructivist learning theory tenets, change students' perceptions, attitudes, knowledge, and skills in the area of cultural competence? 2) Does the delivery method, online or traditional classroom, influence the degree of change? The study used a quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest control group design using the Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competence Among healthcare Professionals Revised. Findings showed significant changes (p<0.001) in cultural competence scores and subscores for all learners with both teaching modalities based on interval scale and in categories of cultural knowledge, skills, desire, and overall competence based on a nominal scale. The untaught construct of cultural desire showed the most significant improvement.