Analysis of content regarding death and bereavement in nursing texts

Information contained in textbooks provides the foundation for undergraduat e education and entry into clinical practice. Inadequate knowledge of healt h care professionals in end of life (EOL) has been documented and efforts a re in progress to improve this care. This paper reports on a project to str engthen nursing education in EOL care. One of the three project goals was t he evaluation of EOL content in 50 nursing textbooks. This paper reports fi ndings in two of the nine areas of the analysis framework which are Death a nd Bereavement. Findings indicate significant deficiencies in the content w ithin these texts. Improvement in text content will require collaboration o f palliative care professionals and textbook publishers and can result in i ncreased ability of nurses to improve EOL care. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wil ey & Sons, Ltd.