Nursing and PharmD Undergraduate Students’ Attitude Toward the “Do Not Resuscitate” Order for Children with Terminally Ill Diseases

Abstract

Sawsan Abuhammad,1 Suhaib Muflih,2 Karem H Alzoubi,2 Besher Gharaibeh3 1Department of Maternal and Child Health, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, 22110, Jordan; 2Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, 22110, Jordan; 3Department of Adult Health, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, 22110, JordanCorrespondence: Sawsan Abuhammad Email [email protected]: Nurses and Doctor of Pharmacy (pharmD) must communicate and properly documented the do not resuscitate orders for terminally ill children and their relatives. They also have to offer excellent care including more family support, assisting the child with terminally ill disease in passing on peacefully, and preventing unnecessary cardiopulmonary resuscitation. This research was aimed to survey attitudes of nursing and pharmD undergraduate students about the “do not resuscitate” order for children with terminally ill diseases.Methods: A cross-sectional correlational design was used to study the correlation between attitude toward DNR and demographic variables. More than 400 nursing and pharmD students from Jordan University of Science and Technology were recruited in this study. All the participating students were e-mailed information regarding the study, including the web survey link.Results: The results showed that there was a significant difference in perception toward do not resuscitate order between nursing and pharmD students (p ≤ 0.05). The pharmD students had more positive attitude toward do not resuscitate than the nursing students. Approximately, 60% of the nursing and pharmD students would disclose the need for the do not resuscitate order for children with terminally ill diseases Demographic variables were not associated with the perception toward do not resuscitate orders (p ≥ 0.05).Conclusion: This study showed that Jordanian nursing and pharmD students are willing to learn more about different aspects of do not resuscitate orders for terminally ill children. Analyzing their responses to many items showed their misconception about do not resuscitate orders for terminally ill children.Keywords: do not rusticate, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, nursing students, children, pharmD students

Keywords

• do not rusticate
• cardiopulmonary resuscitation
• nursing students
• children
• pharmd students