This #WeNurses discussion is a student night takeover and will be facilitated by Student Nurse Dorcas Lambert  (@DorcasELambert, from the University of Bradford, and Dorcas will be tweeting from the @WeNurses account. To find our more about applying to be a student night host please read our blog "Wanted wonderful student nurse tweeters"

Having spoken to many students before they have started their first placements, coping with the death of a patient is a common worry. We will all encounter death during the course of our nursing careers, but death is such a difficult concept for many – how well prepared are we to support people at the end of their lives? We all know the theory, we can learn the textbooks by heart – but does that really help us to address our own fears, anxieties and questions about death? We are expected to maintain professionalism at all times – but is this always possible in such emotionally charged situations?

Living and working in a society where the topic of death and dying is surrounded by stigma can massively impact on the perceptions of what providing care for a patient at this stage of life is. Is there a 'right' way to provide end of life care? As students, are we given enough opportunity to build up some of these skills? The chat aims to explore these concepts, open up discussion and help tackle the hard to answer questions such as:

• What fears and anxieties do you have around supporting people and their family/friends/carers at the end of life?

• How can you prepare yourself to enter into “difficult conversations” with patients and/or their families/friends/carers?

• Why are “difficult conversations” so difficult?

• What can we do to make talking about death easier?

• Do you feel you know enough about the physical and organisational processes around death to be able to support people well?

• How do you feel about providing care after the death of a patient (last offices, supporting bereaved families/friends etc.)?

• How do you keep your emotions from impacting on your professionalism – or is emotion necessary for compassionate care?

• Do people feel that palliative care is a nursing specialism, or should all nurses have at least some training on end of life care?

• How well do we use support from our colleagues/mentors/lecturers? Do you feel confident to talk to them about your anxieties about death and reflect on your experiences?

• Can universities do more to help to prepare students for the challenges of working with people at the end of life?

About our student night guest host:

Dorcas Lambert (@DorcasELambert) says "I'm a married mum of two and a 3rd year Adult Nursing student at the University of Bradford. I'm also a Care Maker, Student Ambassador and Faculty Representative for the Faculty of Health Studies. Before embarking on my nursing degree I worked in various care settings including mental health, elderly and dementia care, and worked for 12 years with adults with learning disabilities. I am currently working on an extracurricular project with student and lecturer colleagues which aims to encourage people to talk about death and end of life care both on a personal and professional level."