Liping Wang1, Chaxiang Li2, Qiongling Zhang3, YaJie Li4. 1. Registered Nurse; Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, Guangdong Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People's Republic of China. 2. Registered Nurse; Assistant Professor, Department of Nursing, Yichang Central People's Hospital, Yichang, Hubei, People's Republic of China. 3. Registered Nurse; Lecturer, Department of Nursing, Zhujiang Hospital of Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China. 4. Registered Nurse; Professor, Department of Clinical Nursing, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To examine Chinese clinical nurses' attitudes towards death and caring for dying patients, and to examine the relationships between clinical nurses' attitudes towards death and caring for dying patients. METHODS: A convenience sample of 770 clinical nurses from 15 hospitals in China. All participants completed the Chinese version of the Frommelt Attitude Toward Care of the Dying Scale, Form B (FATCOD-B-C), the Chinese version of the Death Attitude Profile-Revised (DAP-R-C), and a demographic questionnaire. RESULTS: The mean score of the FATCOD-B-C items was 95.62 (SD = 7.45). The majority of Chinese clinical nurses were likely to provide care for the dying person's family (mean = 3.77), but did not have a positive attitude towards communication with the dying person(mean = 2.62). The majority of Chinese clinical nurses showed low scores on death avoidance (mean=1.96) and natural acceptance (mean = 1.61), and most of them viewed death as a passageway to a happy afterlife (mean = 4.33). Attitudes towards caring for dying patients were significantly negatively correlated with fear of death (r = -0.120) and positively correlated with approach acceptance (r = 0.127) and natural acceptance (r = 0.117). Factors that predicted clinical nurses' attitudes towards the care of dying patients included education level, fear of death, approach acceptance, religious beliefs, previous education on death and dying, natural acceptance, professional title, and experience with death or dying patients, which accounted for 18.7% of the variance. CONCLUSION: Nurses' personal attitudes towards death were associated with their attitudes towards the care of dying patients. Training and educational programmes for clinical nurses should take into consideration nurses' personal attitudes towards death as well as their cultural backgrounds and religious beliefs.
OBJECTIVE: To examine Chinese clinical nurses' attitudes towards death and caring for dying patients, and to examine the relationships between clinical nurses' attitudes towards death and caring for dying patients. METHODS: A convenience sample of 770 clinical nurses from 15 hospitals in China. All participants completed the Chinese version of the Frommelt Attitude Toward Care of the Dying Scale, Form B (FATCOD-B-C), the Chinese version of the Death Attitude Profile-Revised (DAP-R-C), and a demographic questionnaire. RESULTS: The mean score of the FATCOD-B-C items was 95.62 (SD = 7.45). The majority of Chinese clinical nurses were likely to provide care for the dying person's family (mean = 3.77), but did not have a positive attitude towards communication with the dying person(mean = 2.62). The majority of Chinese clinical nurses showed low scores on death avoidance (mean=1.96) and natural acceptance (mean = 1.61), and most of them viewed death as a passageway to a happy afterlife (mean = 4.33). Attitudes towards caring for dying patients were significantly negatively correlated with fear of death (r = -0.120) and positively correlated with approach acceptance (r = 0.127) and natural acceptance (r = 0.117). Factors that predicted clinical nurses' attitudes towards the care of dying patients included education level, fear of death, approach acceptance, religious beliefs, previous education on death and dying, natural acceptance, professional title, and experience with death or dying patients, which accounted for 18.7% of the variance. CONCLUSION: Nurses' personal attitudes towards death were associated with their attitudes towards the care of dying patients. Training and educational programmes for clinical nurses should take into consideration nurses' personal attitudes towards death as well as their cultural backgrounds and religious beliefs.
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Keywords:
Attitudes towards caring for dying patients; Attitudes towards death; China; Clinical nurses