236 students from the Nursing Schools of the University of Navarra and the University of Valladolid consider that the Education in palliative care is essential in their training, as it benefits their professional development and staff. This is the result of a research of the ATLANTES program of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) program of the University of Navarra, published in Nurse Education Today, a leading international journal knowledge dissemination of the latest research in Nursing, specialization program of Midwifery and Education Sanitaria.

The goal of the study was to explore the contribution of a subject elective subject Palliative Care (PC) in the training of Nursing students. The work, which analyzes the reflections on subject provided by the participants, has identified four major themes: this training provides a comprehensive view of Nursing; financial aid students learn how to interact, communicate and know patients better; the growth staff they experience has made them reflect on death and promote their self-awareness; and, for all these reasons, they consider a subject of PC to be fundamental in the programs of study of Nursing.

A booming healthcare specialization program

Palliative care is recognized as a health specialization program in most European countries. Although in Spain it has not yet reached this status, "the BOE requires that Degree of Nursing comply with some skill in this regard," according to María Arantzamendi, professor at School of Nursing at the University of Navarra, ICS researcher and one of the authors of article.

Arantzamendi is also director of the Master's Degree in Palliative Care Nursing, a training that complements the basic knowledge that can be received at Degree "providing the student with a specializedtraining to care for advanced or terminally ill patients and their families". The postgraduate program, continues the expert, "financial aid to live and experience the world of palliative care and see the essential role of nurses within the interdisciplinary team".

Together with this professor, the article ("A qualitative exploratory study of nursing students' assessment of the contribution of palliative care learning") is signed by Carlos Centeno, researcher principal of the ATLANTES program, professor of the School of Medicine and specialist in Palliative Care at the University of Valladolid, and Montserrat Ballesteros, professor of the School of Nursing at the University of Valladolid ( Clínica Universidad de Navarraand Montserrat Ballesteros, professor at the School of Nursing of the University of Valladolid (campus de Soria).