Introduction:

Anticipated wills or the life will allow a person to express, in advance, his/her wishes and options, so that they are taken into account when they cannot do it personally. In advanced decision planning, the nurse participates actively in the explanation of the shared process. Their knowledge and attitude towards the anticipated wills are essential elements.

Objective:

To identify the degree of knowledge among nursing professionals about anticipated wills, and to know their attitude and opinion regarding the papers for anticipated wills.

Methods:

Cross-sectional, descriptive and observational study carried out between March and August 2016 in 100% of the nursing team at the Clinical Institute of Hemato-Oncological Diseases of Hospital Clínic of Barcelona (n=59) through a validated questionnaire made up by 12 questions, with Likert type responses scale 1-10 (1: less favorable-10: more favorable) to the questions raised about the anticipated wills. Statistics for central tendency, dispersion and contrast were used.

Results:

The average age was 36.92 (95% CI 33.85, 39.98); years of average experience: 13.41 (95% CI 10.37 16.44), average knowledge about anticipated wills: 5.59 (IC95% 5.0 6.19), average total score: 8.63 (95% CI 8), 42, 8.85). The age, years of experience, and type of contract are the variables that offered significant differences in knowledge about the papers for anticipated wills and their willingness for presenting such paper next year.

Conclusions:

The knowledge about anticipated wills among expert nurses is improvable, especially among those at younger ages and with less experience. Without differences among groups, the nurses' attitude towards the registration of the paper for anticipated wills is very favorable, as they consider it very useful for families and professionals.

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