Online Role-Play in Palliative Care Education for Early-Career Nurses in Japan: A Pre-Post Evaluation of Perceived Impact and Feasibility.

BACKGROUND

As the global incidence of cancer rises, high-quality palliative care is increasingly needed. Early-career nurses often find symptom management and communication challenging. Although role-playing is a promising educational approach, its effectiveness in fully online formats remains underexplored.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to examine the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of a fully online, role-play-based palliative care education program and to explore participants' experiences with this program.

METHODS

This prospective observational study included 31 nurses with 2-4 years of practice. Participants completed assessments before, right after, and one month after the intervention. These assessments included the Palliative Care Difficulties Scale, Nurses' Difficulty with Cancer Care, Palliative Care Self-reported Practices Scale, confidence, practice level (with reference to the Objective Structured Clinical Examination), and satisfaction. Furthermore, qualitative feedback was collected one month after the program.

RESULTS

Perceived difficulty in alleviating symptoms and communicating with the patient and family significantly decreased one month after the intervention. Confidence and selected practical communication behaviors (e.g., "Support" and "Explore") also improved. Participants reported high satisfaction, and over half of them described applying skills in practice.

CONCLUSION

Online role-play-based training is a feasible and acceptable strategy to help early-career nurses develop palliative care competencies. Further research using randomized controlled trials is warranted to establish its effectiveness.