Profese online 2010, 3(2):71-102 | DOI: 10.5507/pol.2010.008

RELATION BETWEEN NURSING EDUCATION AND ATTITUDES OF NURSES TOWARD DEATH

Jana Slováková
Department of Nursing, Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Aim: The main aim is to examine attitudes of nurses toward death in relation to educational attainment and also to examine significant differences in preference of these attitudes between groups of nurses divided by educational attainment.

Methods: We used as research instrument "Death Attitudes Profile - Revised" in our research.

Results: We evaluated results in five groups of nurses, broken down by educational attainment - Hight school for nursing, Higher education in nursing, Bachelor's degree, Master's degree, Other's degree - specialization in nursing. On the basis of analyzing the data, we found that in the whole sample of nurses was at least represented attitude - Fear of death and the most preferred was a Neutral acceptance. An exception formed the group of nurses with other levels of education, which most preferred attitude of Escape acceptance. Statistically significant differences seen in the attitudes of Death avoidance, Approach acceptance and Escape acceptance. Nurses with educational attainment (Hight school for nursing, Higher education in nursing, Bachelor's degree) more prefer the attitude of avoiding death, while nurses with Master's degree prefer this attitude less. Nurse education (Hight school for nursing, Higher education in nursing, Bachelor's degree) more prefer the attitude of approach acceptance, nurses with Master's degree this attitude prefer less. Nurses with educational attainment (Hight school for nursing, Higher education in nursing) more prefer the attitude Escape acceptance while nurses with Bachelor and Master's degree of nursing prefer this attitude less.

Conclusion: Based on our results we could note that there is clearly demonstrated the impact of education in shaping attitudes in nurses.

Keywords: attitudes toward death, nurses, Death Attitude Profile - Revised, educational attainment

Published: April 2010  Show citation

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Slováková, J. (2010). RELATION BETWEEN NURSING EDUCATION AND ATTITUDES OF NURSES TOWARD DEATH. Profese Online, 3(2), 71-102. doi: 10.5507/pol.2010.008
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