Nursing students' knowledge of palliative care: A short literature review

Background: Health professionals must be knowledgeable and skilled in providing palliative care. This short report reviews the literature that has assessed student nurses' knowledge of palliative care. Method: The following databases were searched: CINHAL, ScienceDirect, Medline, PubMed and Google Scholar for manuscripts published from 2014 to 2020. Only six articles met the inclusion criteria and were thoroughly reviewed. Findings: Students were found to have a poor knowledge of palliative care, especially the management of a patient's symptoms and the definition of palliative care. Conclusion: Integrating palliative care education within nursing curricula is a priority, although the best method to accomplish this is yet to be established.