236 students from the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Navarra and the University of Valladolid consider palliative care education an essential part of their training and believe that it benefits both their professional and personal development. This conclusion was taken from research conducted by the ATLANTES project of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) at the University of Navarra. It was published in Nurse Education Today, a leading international journal that disseminates research on subjects related to Nursing, Midwifery and Health Education.

The study aimed to explore how an elective Palliative Care (PC) course contributed to the training of nursing students. The study, which analyzes responses that students gave concerning the class, has identified four major themes: This training provides a comprehensive view of nursing, it helps students learn how to interact with, communicate with and get to know patients better, it is an occasion for personal growth and encourages students to reflect on death and grow in self-awareness. For all of these reasons, the students thought that a PC course is essential for nursing studies.

A growing health specialty

Palliative care is recognized as a medical specialty in most European countries, although not yet in Spain. However, according to María Arantzamendi, a professor in the Faculty of Nursing, University of Navarra, an ICS research fellow and one of the authors of the article, "the BOE requires that, to obtain a Nursing Degree, students develop some ability in this regard."

Arantzamendi is also director of the Master of Palliative Care Nursing, a degree that builds on the basic knowledge imparted at the undergraduate level and "gives students specialized training in the care of patients with advanced or terminal illness and their families." According to Arantzamendi, the graduate degree "helps to live and experience the world of palliative care firsthand and grasp nurses' essential role within an interdisciplinary team."

Along with Arantzamendi, the article ("A qualitative exploratory study of nursing students' assessment of the contribution of palliative care learning") is also authored by Carlos Centeno, principal investigator of the ATLANTES project, as well as professor in the Faculty of Medicine and specialist in Palliative Care at the University Clinic of Navarra and by Montserrat Ballesteros, professor within the School of Nursing at the University of Valladolid (Campus Soria).