It is so rewarding to help someone to achieve their desires for their health care. The feeling of helping to empower others to know the choices that they have available to them while they can make those choices is profound. It is also gratifying to advocate for others to have a proactive role in the decisions related to their health care. Registered nurses working in North Carolina each day have ample opportunities to engage with patients, caregivers, and community members on the topic of advance care planning and advance directives. The importance of ensuring that nurses receive education and awareness on these topics cannot be overstated. Improving a nurse’s education and awareness can impact a nurse’s ability and comfort level to discuss these topics with others. In addition to providing education and awareness, it is also important to allow for time of reflection on a nurse’s unique experiences and perceptions on barriers related to advance care planning and advance directive completion. Through participants completing an initial survey, educational training including open-ended questions and post-survey, this DNP Scholarly Project sought to look at nurses’ knowledge, attitudes, experiences, perceptions, and self-efficacy related to advance care planning and advance directives while also gaining awareness to nurses’ thoughts on perceived barriers to advance care planning and advance directives and if nurses feel the educational training offered as part of this project would benefit other nurses.
