End-of-life Care in Nigeria: Preparing Nursing Students and Workforce to Take the Lead

Abstract

In this 21st century, several factors have informed the increasing need of end-of-life care globally. Notable amongst them are the global changes in both demographic and disease pattern; factors that have led to increasing number of chronic illnesses. Individuals suffering from chronic illnesses are faced with complex health challenges and thus, they ought to be supported and cared for as they progress towards the end-of-life. This care has always been a unique and important function of nurses irrespective of the work setting. Unfortunately, literatures in most parts of the world have shown that nurses are not adequately prepared to take on this role; demonstrating gaps in knowledge, attitude and skills in caring for the dying. The aim of this article is to increase awareness on the growing need for palliative and end-of-life care, review evidence to determine nurses’ preparedness in terms of knowledge, attitude and competence to provide quality care to patients who are near death and their family, and to discuss evidence based strategies that will enhance nurses’ knowledge, attitude and skills in providing quality and competent end-of-life care to patients approaching the end-of-life. The literature search related to the article was conducted from databases; google search, MEDLINE, Google scholars and Pubmed. Themes that emerge in literature suggest that knowledge, and competence of end-of-life care among nurses is lacking and the need to prepare nursing students and possess a workforce with requisite knowledge, attitude and skills to adequately care for the dying has become a priority.