Assessing nursing students' palliative care training needs and profiles: a cross-sectional study using K-means clustering.

BACKGROUND: Palliative care is crucial in nursing, yet nursing students often lack adequate training, compromising their ability to provide holistic end-of-life care. Despite growing awareness, research on specific training needs remains limited. AIM: This study aimed to assess and classify the training needs of nursing students in palliative care education by using K-means clustering. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. METHODS: Data were collected in March 2023 from nursing students at a medical university in southwestern China through an online questionnaire. The questionnaire included demographics and the Nurses Receiving In-service Palliative Care Education Needs Scale. Subsequently, K-means clustering was used to analyze the collected data, aiming to identify distinct profiles of nursing students with similar palliative care training needs. RESULTS: A total of 695 nursing students participated in the study, with a mean age of 22.40 years and 87.6% being female. Most of the students lacked experience in terminal care (80.4%) and nontextbook palliative care knowledge (74.4%). Nursing students prioritized training needs in ethical issues and teamwork (mean score: 3.71), communication and consultation (mean score: 3.69), and managing symptoms and pain relief (mean score: 3.69), while cultural and spiritual considerations ranked lowest (3.41). K-means clustering identified two distinct profiles: high-level needs (n = 393) and moderate-level needs (n = 302). High-need students reported significantly lower exposure to nontextbook palliative care knowledge compared to moderate-need students (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Nursing students exhibit high-level needs of palliative care training, particularly in ethical issues and teamwork, communication and counseling, and handling of symptoms and pain relief. K-means clustering identified two profiles: high-level needs and moderate-level needs groups, differentiated by nontextbook learning exposure. Nursing educators should urgently consider redesigning palliative care training curricula, addressing resource accessibility gaps, and tailoring programs to cluster-specific needs to improve palliative care preparedness.