In the cultural context of China, it holds profound significance for nursing students to engage in discussions about hospice and palliative care with their families. This study aimed to explore nursing students’ willingness to discuss hospice and palliative care with their families and the factors associated with it.

Nursing students from three schools in three Chinese provinces (n = 1,234) completed questionnaires on general information, hospice and palliative care awareness, attitude toward death, and willingness to discuss hospice and palliative care with their families. This cross-sectional analysis utilized logistic regression to investigate the predictors of participants’ willingness to discuss hospice and palliative care with their families.

The mean hospice and palliative care knowledge score was 6.68, and 19.1% were willing to discuss the topic with their families. Factors associated with nursing students’ willingness to discuss hospice and palliative care with their families included region, whether their family members considered talking about death a taboo, whether a family member was severely ill and at risk of death, their knowledge of World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, hospice and palliative care knowledge score, and death avoidance attitude. Participants with higher hospice and palliative care knowledge scores were more willing to discuss the topic with their families, while a higher death avoidance score was associated with unwillingness.

Nursing students significantly lack hospice and palliative care awareness, and their willingness to discuss the topic with their families needs improvement. Nursing schools should provide systematic and standardized hospice and palliative care education and communication skills training.