Integrating Quality of Life Assessments in Student Clinical Learning Experience

Abstract

Health care organizations and governments increasingly emphasize the importance of viewing patients and families as equal members of the care team, with the right to participate in decisions affecting their care. In order to support the imperatives of person-centred care, quality of life (QOL) assessments are utilized more as part of routine clinical care. QOL assessments involve the use of standardized, validated questionnaires completed by patients to assess their health and quality of life from their own point of view.

In an effort to support transformational learning about QOL assessments, fourth-year students in a BSN program completed an assignment that involved using two QOL assessment instruments as part of a course on Nursing Care of Complex Illness; the McGill Quality of Life Revised instrument (MQOL-R) and the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System Revised (ESAS-R). Each student invited a patient with life-limiting illness to complete the two instruments, discuss the results with their patient, and identify potential interventions that would address the priorities that correspond with patient-identified areas of concern. They were then required to write a reflective paper on their experience. Analysis of the students’ reflections was guided by the qualitative methodology of interpretive description. The following six thematic patterns were identified: a) student expectations and patient responses, b) comfort level using QOL assessment instruments, c) therapeutic person-centred communication, d) putting the patient first—prioritizing care from the patients’ point of view, e) insight into the lived experience of patients, and f) use of nurses’ time. This study provides preliminary guidance based on student perspectives regarding the inclusion of QOL assessments in nursing education.