The effects of occurrence and frequency of nursing students’ confrontation of death on their attitudes towards death

Abstract

This study was conducted as a descriptive study aiming at determining the effects of the facing death situation and frequency of nursing students on their attitudes towards death.The research was carried out between October 10 and October 21, 2016 with the participation of 233 students who were currently studying in the nursing department of the Faculty of Health Sciences. The data were collected by the 25question questionnaire form prepared by the researchers and determined the demographic characteristics of the students and their attitudes towards death using the Death Attitude Profile-Revised (DAP-R) Scale. As the total scores obtained on the scale increased, it is considered that a more negative attitude is developed towards death. For the data assessment, percentile estimation, Levine test, One Way ANOVA, Tukey test, Mann Whitney U test, and Kruskall Wallis test were used. The present study demonstrated that of the students, 46.4% loved their profession, 59.7% preferred their profession willingly, 36.5% lost a first-degree relative previously, 65.7% faced death situation during clinical practices, 60.1% avoided from facing with the relatives of the deceased individual, and only 21.5% found herself/himself sufficient for understanding the patients’ relatives. The median score of DAP- -161.00), the median score the -72), the median score of the Escape Acceptance subdimension -32), and tha relationship was found amongthe DAP-R scores of the students and their sociodemographic and occupational characteristics and  facing death situations (p <0.05). Considering that a negative attitude toward death was developed as the total score of the scale increased, this study revealed that the students did not develop any negative attitudes towards death. 
 
Keywords: Nursing, student, death, attitude, frequency of facing death.