Nurses' Competency in Communication with Patients at the End of Life and Their Families and Related Factors

Abstract

This descriptive study aimed to examine the relationship between nurses' competency in communication with patients at the end of life and their families and related factors. The sample of the study was 398 registered nurses who had been working for at least one year in medical wards, surgical wards, and critical wards in general hospitals, regional hospitals, and university hospital in southern. Instruments used in the study included: (1) the Demographic Data Questionnaire (DDQ), and (2) the Nurses' Competency in Communication with Patients at the End of Life and Their Families (NCC-EOL). The demographic data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient and point biserial correlation were used to analyze the relationships between nurses' competency in communication with patients at the end of life and their families and related factors.

 The results showed that nurses’ self-awareness and attitudes toward death and the dying patients had moderate positive relationship with competency in communication with patients at the end of life and their families (r = .34, p < .01 and r = .31, p < .01, respectively). Age, education, experience of caring for dying patients, training of caring for dying patients, and having a multidisciplinary team in end of life care in the hospital had mild positive relationship with nurses’ competency in communication with patients at the end of life and their families (r =.25, p <.01; r =.13, p < .05; r =.21, p < .01; r =.24, p < .01 and r =.14, p < .01 respectively).

The results of the study can be used for improving nurses’ competency in communication with patients at the end of life and their families. Further study should be an experimental design, to improve quality of end-of-life care to be more effective.