Nursing students' anxiety and attitudes towards caring for the dying : a correlational study.

Abstract

Hospitalisation of death, in Western countries has increasingly exposed nurses to the dying process and consequently, caring for the dying has become increasingly central to nursing (Porock, Pullock & Jurgens, 2009). The study main aim was to correlate the perceived fear of death levels and attitudes towards caring for the dying of nursing students. Additionally, this study investigated the differences in perceived fear of death and attitudes towards caring for the dying among the students' demographic characteristics. This study was underpinned by a descriptive, cross-sectional, correlational design. In this study data were collected by the Frommelt Attitude Toward Care of the Dying Scale (FATCOD) and the Revised Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale and a demographic questionnaire. The Role Effectiveness Model (Irvine et aI., 1998) guided this study. This conceptual model purports that healthcare is structured by a meshwork of healthcare professionals that collectively aim to provide care so as the aspired outcomes are reached. This meshwork consists of several entities that have different roles and behaviours (Irvine et aI., 1998). Data were collected among all the nursing students' cohort with a response rate of 78.4%. The data were analysed by descriptive and inferential statistics by using the Predictive Analytic Software Statistical Package 19 (PASW). The findings suggest that nursing students have a positive attitude towards caring for dying patients, death, communicating with dying patients and caring for family members of dying patients. However, results show that students predominantly possess more positive attitudes towards caring for the family members of dying patients and less positive attitudes towards communicating with dying patients. Students were found to have high levels of perceived fear of death. No significant correlation was found between perceived fear of death and overall attitudes towards caring for the dying, attitudes towards death and attitudes towards communicating with dying patients. Contrastingly, a positive significant correlation was found between nursing students' perceived fear of death and caring for the family members of dying patients. Differences in perceived fear of death levels were identified among

gender and affiliation to religion variables. Furthermore, variables contributing to differences in overall attitudes towards caring for the dying and attitudes towards caring for dying patients include gender, course level, caring for the dying experience and course year. Differences between attitudes towards death, attitudes towards caring for the dying and attitudes towards communicating with dying patients were found by course level, experience and course year. The findings generated from this study can be utilised and applied in nursing education, to ultimately improve the quality of care delivered to dying patients and their families.