Background: Current evidence suggests that palliative care education can improve preregistration nursing\nstudents� competencies in palliative care. However, it is not known whether these competencies are translated into\nstudents� practice in the care of patients who are approaching the end of life. This paper seeks to contribute to the\npalliative care evidence base by examining how nursing students in receipt of education report transfer of learning\nto practice, and what the barriers and facilitators may be, in a resource-poor country.\nMethods: We utilised focus groups and individual critical incident interviews to explore nursing students� palliative\ncare learning transfer. Three focus groups, consisting of 23 participants and 10 individual critical incident interviews\nwere conducted with preregistration nursing student who had attended a palliative care course in Cameroon and\nhad experience caring for a patient approaching the end of life. Data was analysed thematically, using the\nframework approach.\nResults: The results suggest that nursing students in receipt of palliative care education can transfer their learning\nto practice. Students reported recognizing patients with palliative care needs, providing patients with physical,\npsychosocial and spiritual support and communicating patient information to the wider care team. They did\nhowever perceive some barriers to this transfer which were either related to themselves, qualified nurses, the\npractice setting or family caregivers and patients.\nConclusion: The findings from this study suggest that nursing student in receipt of palliative care education can\nuse their learning in practice to provide care to patients and their families approaching the end of life. Nevertheless,\nthese findings need to be treated with some caution given the self-reported nature of the data. Demonstrating the\nlink between preregistration palliative care education and patient care is vital to ensuring that newly acquired\nknowledge and skills are translated and embedded into clinical practice. This study also has implications for\nadvocating for palliative care policies and adequately preparing clinical placement sites for students� learning and\ntransfer of learning.
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