Italian nursing students' attitudes towards care of the dying patient: A multi-center descriptive study

International literature reports that nursing students feel unprepared when facing patients and families within dying care. They consider their curricula inadequate in teaching end-of-life care and promoting the attitudes required to care for dying patients. Findings of recent studies exploring nursing students' attitudes towards care of the dying patient are often contradictory. To explore Italian nursing students' attitudes towards caring for dying patients. A multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted. The Bachelor's Degree in Nursing courses of four Universities of the Lazio Region. The sample included 1193 students. Data were collected between September 2017 and March 2018 using the Italian version of FATCOD-B-I. The differences between the mean scores were compared through t-test or ANOVA. Associations between scores and participant characteristics were evaluated through generalized linear regression. The mean score of FATCOD-B-I was 115.3 (SD = 9.1). Higher scores were significantly associated with training in palliative care (p