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Background <p>Palliative care is crucial in nursing, yet nursing students often lack adequate training, compromising their ability to provide holistic end-of-life care. Despite growing awareness, research on specific training needs remains limited.</p> Aim <p>This study aimed to assess and classify the training needs of nursing students in palliative care education by using K-means clustering.</p> Design <p>A cross-sectional study.</p> Methods <p>Data were collected in March 2023 from nursing students at a medical university in southwestern China through an online questionnaire. The questionnaire included demographics and the Nurses Receiving In-service Palliative Care Education Needs Scale. Subsequently, K-means clustering was used to analyze the collected data, aiming to identify distinct profiles of nursing students with similar palliative care training needs.</p> Results <p>A total of 695 nursing students participated in the study, with a mean age of 22.40 years and 87.6% being female. Most of the students lacked experience in terminal care (80.4%) and nontextbook palliative care knowledge (74.4%). Nursing students prioritized training needs in ethical issues and teamwork (mean score: 3.71), communication and consultation (mean score: 3.69), and managing symptoms and pain relief (mean score: 3.69), while cultural and spiritual considerations ranked lowest (3.41). K-means clustering identified two distinct profiles: high-level needs (<i>n</i> = 393) and moderate-level needs (<i>n</i> = 302). High-need students reported significantly lower exposure to nontextbook palliative care knowledge compared to moderate-need students (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.001).</p> Conclusion <p>Nursing students exhibit high-level needs of palliative care training, particularly in ethical issues and teamwork, communication and counseling, and handling of symptoms and pain relief. K-means clustering identified two profiles: high-level needs and moderate-level needs groups, differentiated by nontextbook learning exposure. Nursing educators should urgently consider redesigning palliative care training curricula, addressing resource accessibility gaps, and tailoring programs to cluster-specific needs to improve palliative care preparedness.</p>

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Assessing nursing students’ palliative care training needs and profiles: a cross-sectional study using K-means clustering

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年10月6日

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  • Liu Yang,
  • Lanxin Zhang,
  • Bingjie Long,
  • Tong Zhu,
  • Mei Chen,
  • Simon Ching Lam,
  • Renli Deng

摘要

Background

Palliative care is crucial in nursing, yet nursing students often lack adequate training, compromising their ability to provide holistic end-of-life care. Despite growing awareness, research on specific training needs remains limited.

Aim

This study aimed to assess and classify the training needs of nursing students in palliative care education by using K-means clustering.

Design

A cross-sectional study.

Methods

Data were collected in March 2023 from nursing students at a medical university in southwestern China through an online questionnaire. The questionnaire included demographics and the Nurses Receiving In-service Palliative Care Education Needs Scale. Subsequently, K-means clustering was used to analyze the collected data, aiming to identify distinct profiles of nursing students with similar palliative care training needs.

Results

A total of 695 nursing students participated in the study, with a mean age of 22.40 years and 87.6% being female. Most of the students lacked experience in terminal care (80.4%) and nontextbook palliative care knowledge (74.4%). Nursing students prioritized training needs in ethical issues and teamwork (mean score: 3.71), communication and consultation (mean score: 3.69), and managing symptoms and pain relief (mean score: 3.69), while cultural and spiritual considerations ranked lowest (3.41). K-means clustering identified two distinct profiles: high-level needs (n = 393) and moderate-level needs (n = 302). High-need students reported significantly lower exposure to nontextbook palliative care knowledge compared to moderate-need students (p < 0.001).

Conclusion

Nursing students exhibit high-level needs of palliative care training, particularly in ethical issues and teamwork, communication and counseling, and handling of symptoms and pain relief. K-means clustering identified two profiles: high-level needs and moderate-level needs groups, differentiated by nontextbook learning exposure. Nursing educators should urgently consider redesigning palliative care training curricula, addressing resource accessibility gaps, and tailoring programs to cluster-specific needs to improve palliative care preparedness.