Prepared for end-of-life care: a concept analysis.

BACKGROUND: Recent international documents have highlighted the importance of preparing the nursing workforce for end of life care. However, these documents do not make clear what prepared in the context of end-of-life care actually means. Searching the literature failed to retrieve any papers defining prepared in this context.

AIM: A concept analysis, using Walker and Avant's model, was conducted to help address this gap in the knowledge base.

RESULTS: From this analysis many attributes and antecedents were synthesised. These include that a prepared nurse would be confident to: assess the dying patient, communicate with empathy, identify and manage symptoms, recognise and deal with death and dying, understand the holistic elements of dying, be comfortable with the effects of loss and bereavement on patients and self, and be self-competent.

CONCLUSIONS: From this analysis, a clearer idea of what is needed to prepare nurses for end-of-life care is offered and suggestions for future research are made.