Nursing Education in Thanatology

This important new book focuses on the practical considerations involved in including thanatology in the nursing curriculum. Authorities illustrate how prepared health care professionals who are educated about death and dying more effectively assist patients and/or their families during an emotionally difficult time. Learn the basics—from professionals who have taught nursing students—about developing developing a program in thanatology for nursing students. There are valuable chapters that describe the specific thanatology curricula at several different schools; provide techniques for incorporating such topics as cremation, euthanasia, grieving, and near-death experiences into the curriculum; discuss the role of the LPN in caring for the terminally ill and their families; and address the use computer-assisted instruction in death education.

Florence E. Selder

Contents Section I: Teaching Aspects and the Thanatology Curriculum Content - Considerations in Teaching Thanatology - Concepts of Thanatology in the Nursing Curriculum - University of Michigan's School of Nursing Curriculum Related to Issues of Death and Dying - Cremation in the Thanatology Curriculum - Death Education Changes Coping to Confidence - The LPN: Ability to Deliver Care to the Terminally Ill - The Near-Death Experience: Implications for Nursing Education - Guidelines for Death Education as a Developmental Process - The Value of Computer-Assisted Instruction in Death Education - A Study of the Relationship Between Knowledge and Attitudes of Nurses in Practice Related to the Near-Death Experience - Section II: Coping Approaches and the Thanatology Curriculum - Grieving: An Essential Topic in Allied Health Education - Implementation of the Management of the Grieving Process in the Curriculum at Suffolk Community College - Section III: Clinical Imperatives - Clinical Imperatives Versus Ethical Commitments in Euthanasia: The Perspective of Nurses - Grief: Teaching the Hard Things - Reference Notes Included