The Influence of Sociodemographic Characteristics and Prior Palliative Care Education and Experience on Undergraduate Nursing Students’ Attitudes Toward End-of-Life Care: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: The need for palliative care (PC) is increasing globally. As frontline healthcare workers, nurses play a pivotal role in providing PC to end-of-life (EOL) patients. Therefore, undergraduate nursing students must be adequately prepared to provide evidence-based, compassionate, and comprehensive care to patients during their terminal phase of life. Herein, we aimed to assess the knowledge and attitudes of Saudi undergraduate nursing students toward palliative and EOL care. Methods: This was a cross-sectional, correlational study conducted on 147 undergraduate nursing students from various regions of Saudi Arabia. The participants completed the Palliative Care Quiz for Nurses (PCQN) and Frommelt Attitudes Toward Care of the Dying-Form B scale (FATCOD-B) to assess their knowledge and attitudes toward EOL care, respectively. Results: Higher PCQN scores were significantly associated with higher FATCOD-B scores, suggesting that nursing students with higher levels of PC knowledge had more positive attitudes toward EOL care (r = 0.205, p = 0.013). Additionally, PC knowledge and formal PC education significantly predicted nursing students’ attitudes toward EOL care (β = 0.187, p < 0.05; β = −0.185, p < 0.05, respectively). The model explained 7.6% of the variance in nursing students’ attitudes toward EOL care (R² = 0.076, p < 0.01). Conclusions: PC education remains inadequately integrated into undergraduate nursing curricula worldwide, despite nurses being at the forefront of EOL care. Embedding PC concepts early in nursing programs is crucial to build a workforce capable of meeting growing EOL care demands with genuine knowledge and confidence.