Nurses´ Attitudes Towards Dying and Death

Research Square (Research Square), 2024

Background: Caring for terminally ill patients is a complicated task that challenges nurses and physicians with the psychological concerns and associated with a high level of physical and psychological discomfort among family, patients, and health care professionals. Aim: the aim of this study was to assess nurses' and physicians' attitudes towards death and end-of-life care, as well as to examine the correlations between nurses' and physicians' attitudes toward caring for dying patients and theirdemographic characteristics. Method: A total of 200 oncology nurses and physicians were recruited using a non-probability convenience sample from Jordanian specialized oncology hospital. All participants were invited to complete the questionnaire, which consisted of the demographic data sheet and Frommelt's Attitude toward Care of the Dying-B scale. Result: The majority of nurses and physicians have a positive attitude toward death (FATCOD=106.31). Furthermore, there are statistically signi cant associations between nurses' and physicians' gender, previous experience with terminally ill patients, years of working experience, previous education on death and dying, previous experience with loss, religious beliefs and attitude toward end-of-life care and death. Conclusion: End-of-life Care can provoke a wide range of inconvenient attitudes and feelings, which have a signi cant impact on the end-of-life care. Based on the study nding, more positive attitudes toward death were found among physicians and nurses with longer clinical experience in caring for terminally ill patients. Furthermore, death education and religious beliefs signi cantly in uence the death attitude of nurses and physicians.

2015

Background & Aim: Fear of death can cause death anxiety for everyone. In health care professions, death anxiety becomes a routine source of stress and may lead to unwanted consequences. Coping strategies of nurses and different approaches to death can affect the quality of health care services. The aim of this study was to determine attitudes toward death in nursing staff in hospitals of Rafsanjan. Methods & Materials: This was a cross-sectional study. The population study consisted of 400 (all nursing staff) working in hospitals of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences (RUMS) in 2012. The data were collected using demographic and death attitude profile revised questionnaires. Results: Fear of death was significantly higher in women, younger participants with little work experience, those without experience of intensive care unit working, and those without a history of education about death (P < 0.0500). Death escape scores were significantly higher in the age group of 31-35 y...

Frontiers in Psychology, 2021

The aim of this study was to explore how older adults (aged > 65) confronted with imminent death express their thoughts and feelings about death and dying and verbalize meaning. Furthermore, the aim was to investigate how health professionals could better address the needs of this patient group to experience meaning at the end of life. The study applied a qualitative method, involving semi-structured interviews with 10 participants at two hospices. The method of analysis was interpretative phenomenological analysis. We found three chronological time-based themes: (1) Approaching Death, (2) The time before dying, and (3) The afterlife. The participants displayed scarce existential vernacular for pursuing meaning with approaching death. They primarily applied understanding and vocabulary from a medical paradigm. The participants’ descriptions of how they experienced and pursued meaning in the time before dying were also predominantly characterized by medical vernacular, but these d...

Objetivo. analisar os sentimentos de enfermeiros confrontados com a morte, a luz da psicodinâmica Dejouriana. Métodos. Estudo qualitativo, exploratório, analisado, interpretado e discutido enfatizando o sofrimento e prazer, proposto por Dejours. Resultados. Os participantes foram 11 Enfermeiros, maioria mulheres, solteiras, brancas, católicas, entre dois e dezesseis anos de profissão. A análise das respostas permitiu encontrar alguns fatores propulsores e potencializadores dos sentimentos de prazer e sofrimento. Identificou-se como prazer: sensação de dever cumprido, conforto e alívio; como sofrimento: tristeza, frustração, dificuldade com o luto, impotência e incapacidade. Também apresentam mecanismos de defesa para evitar o sofrer, como: não pensar no sofrimento e morte, refugiando-se no trabalho. Conclusão. Identificou-se os fatores relacionados com o prazer e o sofrimento dos Enfermeiros quando enfrentam a morte. Há, portanto, necessidade da educação para a o processo de morte na formação acadêmica e estudos, que aproximem o enfermeiro deste processo natural. Palavras chave: enfermagem do trabalho; enfermeira; processos de enfermagem; morte; pesquisa qualitativa; emoções.

Nurses are exposed to dying patients in the course of their clinical work, and the personal attitudes of nurses about death and dying will probably affect the quality of care that they provide during the terminal stages of a patient's life. There are different reasons to fear of death, and the aim of the present study was to examine the reasons why Iranian nurses fear death and to compare these reasons with those of other women. The subjects were 112 women (56 nurses and 56 comparison women). Nurses were selected from a general hospital, and the control group was matched for age, education, marital status, employment status and years of work experience. On the Reasons for Death Fear Scale (RDFS), the nurses had significantly higher scores than the control group on only two items: grieving over what they would leave behind (wealth, valuables, etc.) and over the loss of self or Reasons for fearing death in Iranian nurses, Global Journal on Advances in Pure & Applied Sciences [Online]. 2014, 04, pp 335-341. Available from: http://www.world-education-center.org/index.php/paas 336 identity. Since nurses experience emotional issues related to death, they need skills to manage their fear of death, and death education program in the workplace might reduce their fear of death. The generalizability of the present results to male nurses and other health professionals merits further investigation.

Nurses working in cancer centers deal frequently with the phenomenon of death and dying during the daily care of patients. Their demographic and experiential characteristics and previous educational background can shape their attitudes toward care for dying patients. To review relevant literature related to nursing care at the end of life and nurses' attitudes towards death and dying, a literature search was conducted utilizing Medline, Elton B Stephens Company, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. The descriptor words were: death, dying, death experience, nursing, palliative care, attitudes, attitudes toward care of the dying, attitude change, and end-of-life. The review showed that certain standardized education programs, like end of life nursing education consortium, can change nurses' attitudes toward death and dying. By using several education methods, including role playing, case studies, reflection and open discussion, such programs help nurses reflect on their emotions and cope with the scene and thoughts of death and dying. Moreover, for change to occur, adequate duration of education is necessary. End of life education is vital for nursing curricula and inservice education to improve nurses' attitude toward death and dying and consequently improve quality of nursing care of dying patients.

Journal of Urmia Nursing and Midwifery Faculty, 2013

Background & Aims: Understanding nurses' experience of patient death, the appropriate approach to understand this phenomenon is the aim of this study. Also as a supporting role of the nurses, understanding the notion of death, they can better provide care for their sick patient and their family. As long as the nurses are not familiar with all aspects of death, they cannot be able to make right decisions about the care of a really sick and dying patient. This study aimed to explore, describe and interpret the patient's death, and to help the nurses to gain a deeper insight about that experience. Materials & Methods: A phenomenological approach was used to conduct this research, because it could obtain rich information about the patient deaths. Twelve nurses from high mortality wards were chosen and they were individually interviewed. The data were analyzed by Vanmannen method. Results: Five themes emerged from the findings that portrayed the experiences of nurses concerning the patient deaths (mental erosion, faulty interaction, combined with the stress of caring, a feeling of sadness and normalization). However, normalization of the patient's death may have beneficial effects for the nurses, but the reactions of patients and their families should be taken into consideration. Conclusion: The results revealed that nurses are experiencing serious problems. They need to be supported by their families consistently. Ignoring the needs of nurses, can have adverse effects on the patients and their community.

Hospice and Palliative Medicine International Journal, 2018

Background: The aim of this study was to determine the attitudes of nurses in Turkey to death, and the factors affecting this. Methods: The research was conducted with 390 nurses working in various departments of a university medical faculty hospital. A demographic questionnaire was given to the nurses to determine socio-demographic characteristics, and the DAP-R was used. Results: A majority of the nurses in our study (86.2%) believed terminal stage health care in Turkey to be inadequate; 46.7% thought that they themselves were partially inadequate with regard to terminal stage patient care, and a majority (76.4%) wanted to have psychosocial training in final stage patient care. The nurses' mean scores on the DAP-R were as follows: fear of death 4.7±1.18, avoidance of death 3.92±1.28, neutral acceptance of death 5.22±0.88, approach-oriented acceptance of death 4.69±0.94, and escape-oriented acceptance of death 3.59±1.16. Among the factors affecting attitudes to death, a positive correlation was found between age and escape acceptance of death (p=0.001 r:0.168) and a statistically significant relationship was found between marital status and fear of death, between education (professional experience) and escape acceptance and neutral acceptance of death, and between place of work and neutral and approach acceptance of death (p<0.05). Conclusion: It was found that nurses sometimes saw death as an unavoidable reality. However, it was concluded that this attitude was not reflected in daily life, that death is turned into a complete crisis, and that we still treat death as a taboo subject.

2020

The aim of current research is to present the Spanish version of the DAP-R, using confirmatory techniques. The sample was composed of 286 nursing undergraduate students. The confirmatory factor analysis tested offered an appropriate overall fit, internal consistency of the subscales was adequate, and most of the correlations among the DAP-R and the CL-FODS dimensions were statistically significant and, in the direction, expected. Conclusions pointed out: (1) The appropriate psychometric properties of the DAP-R when used in Spanish nurses’ sample, and (2) the importance of three concrete death attitudes for professionals’ well-being: fear of death, escape acceptance and neutral acceptance. *Correspondence: Enrique Sáez, MA, Catholic University of Valencia, Carrer de Quevedo, 2, 46001, Valencia (Spain), Telephone: +34 963637412. Received: 15 November 2020; Accepted: 08 December 2020

International journal of palliative nursing, 2008

In this study, the attitudes of student nurses from Kerman and Bam in Iran towards death and caring for dying patients were compared. Two types of questionnaire were used: the DAP-R (Death Attitude Profile Revised) and FATCOD (Frommelt Attitude Towards Caring for Dying patients). The Bam student nurses, who had more experience of death due to the Bam earthquake in December 2003, were found to be less afraid of death and also less likely to give care to people at the end of life compared to their counterparts in Kerman. In both groups, those who were educated about death and dying had more positive attitudes towards caring for people who are dying than non-educated participants. The study suggests that adding palliative care education, accompanied by a reflective narrative approach, to the nursing curriculum is necessary to improve quality of care at the end of life.

OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying, 2019

This study aims to investigate the relationship between death anxiety of the Turkish nurses and their attitudes toward the dying patient. This study involved 203 nurses who were working at a university hospital. The data were collected using “Nurse Information Form” (which was prepared by the authors of this research), “Thorson-Powell Death Anxiety Scale,” and “Attitude Scale about Euthanasia, Death, and Dying Patient.” There was a positive correlation between death anxiety and dying patient avoidance behavior and euthanasia score ( p &lt; .05). The findings showed that nurses, death anxiety, and death scores were high in the loss of a close relatives ( p &lt; .05). Our findings suggest that the situation of the dying patients and their families and also nurses should be improved. Thus, special psychological education/training should be given to the nurses to deal with death anxiety and their attitude to the dying patient.

Journal of religion and health, 2018

This study aims to compare attitudes toward death between university students who receive nursing education and who receive religious education. This study is cross-sectional in nature. It was conducted with the participation of 197 university students in a university located in the Eastern part of Turkey between June and August, 2017. Data were collected using the socio-demographic form and Turkish form of Death Attitudes Profile-Revised. Of all the students participating in the study, 52.8% received nursing education and 47.2% received religious education. It was found that majority of both groups had no education about death, or found the education they received insufficient. Besides, no significant differences were found between the students who received nursing education and who received religious education in terms of their attitudes toward death (p &gt; 0.05). Results showed that students who received nursing education and who received religious education had similar attitude...

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021

Spirituality is the most unknown aspect of palliative care despite being the need that is most altered in the last moments of life. Objective. To identify on the one hand the spiritual needs of patients who are at the end of life and on the other hand, the way in which nursing professionals can work to provide effective accompaniment in this process. Method. A qualitative study was conducted which applied different data collection techniques. This was done to describe the phenomenon from a holistic perspective in relation to experts' perceptions of the competencies required by health professionals and palliative patients' spiritual needs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted within both populations. In order to analyze the qualitative data collected through interviews, discourse was analyzed according to the Taylor-Bodgan model and processed using Atlas.ti software. Results. Three well-differentiated lines of argument are extracted from the discourse in each of the groups, on the one hand in the group of patients they define the concept of spirituality, system of values and beliefs, and the Factors that influence the spirituality of patients at the end of life (differentiating palliative care areas/other areas) and on the other, the professionals agree with the patients in the line of argument of concept of spirituality although they define more metaphysical categories and the other two lines of argument that result are the spiritual attention in this process and the need for formation in spirituality. Conclusions. The provision of spiritual care gives meaning to the actions of nursing professionals when it comes to providing end-of-life care, achieving holistic care, humanizing death, and promoting a dignified end.

PALLIATIVE CARE FOR ELDERLY PEOPLE IN SITUATION OF ENDITUDE - OPINION OF NURSING PROFESSIONALS (Atena Editora), 2023

1.Introduction: changes in their epidemiological and demographic profiles, due to low mortality rates from infectious diseases, studies have signaled a rapid increase in the number of elderly people in Brazil. This process can be observed in developed and developing countries, which generates socioeconomic, cultural, demographic and epidemiological transformations. Unfortunately, in developing countries, this fact leads to social inequalities that require planning and public policies that focus on the elderly and their particularities, including the proximity of death and injuries that can lead to early finitude. 2- Objective: To understand the perceptions of the nursing team in the sector of Medical Clinic in Palliative Care with elderly people in finitude of a private hospital in the city of São Paulo that serves mostly elderly people. 3- Methodology - This was field research, exploratory and descriptive with a qualitative approach, which sought to describe palliative care for the elderly in their finitude and to understand the perceptions of the nursing team in the Internal Medicine sector in palliative care for the elderly. This study was carried out in a private hospital that provides services and assistance to the predominantly elderly population with different pathologies. It had the participation of 18 professionals who provide care to the hospitalized elderly, who agreed to participate in the study by signing the Free and Informed Consent Form (TCLE) and approval of CEP CAAE: 332959914.5.0000.5494. 4. Discussion -The transcription was carried out in the speech of the subjects using the words of significance in relation to the team's perception of palliative care through charts and diagrams, and later discussed in comparison to what the literature addresses in relation to the findings, through the analysis by Laurence Bardin.5. Conclusion - Through the results of this study, it was possible to describe and understand the actions and perceptions of the nursing team in the elderly in their finitude, the results of the research showed that the nursing team is not yet prepared to act in front of the elderly in a terminal phase, i.e. facing death.

Journal of Health and Allied Sciences NU, 2013

Objective: The objectives of the study were assess nursing students perception on death and dying and to identify the perception on death and dying among nursing students of different levels. Materials and Methods: A descriptive survey design was used. Data were collected from 210 nursing students in selected Colleges of Nursing in Udupi district, Karnataka state by using semi structured questionnaire. Result: Thoughts: while caring dying patients and their families, 66.6% perceived thoughts regarding the physical, emotional, spiritual care given to patients who were dying and 77.6% regarding their family or friends. 57.1% perceived thoughts regarding their sufferings, 88% perceived thoughts about a realization that death is a part of life, 29.5% perceived thoughts about the survival and 42.8% perceived that being able to care for dying patients as a privilege and it is an opportunity to work with those who are going through the dying process. Feelings: 40.5% nursing students had ph...