An analysis of nurses’ attitude change toward death and dying as affected by death education intervention

THE PROBLEM
The nurse is the health care giver with the highest degree of contact with dying persons and their families. Nurses’ fear of death and dying may decrease with increased academic preparation. This study attempted to identify the effect of death education on nurses’ attitudes toward death and dying. The results may aid in decisions about the necessity of having a specific death education course and/or an inservice education program for nurses.

PROCEDURES
Subjects were 157 student nurses and 148 registered nurses randomly assigned to experimental and contrast groups. The experimental treatment was a two-day death education workshop and the contrast treatment was a two-day creativity innovation training workshop. The dependent variables were the Revised Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale and the Templer Death Anxiety Scale. A 2 x 2 repeated measure design was used and measurement of the dependent variables included a protest, posttest, and followup test.