Attitudes of nurses in the face of a patient’s death

Introduction

Death has always been associated with unpleasant feelings such as pain, fear, suffering, and loss. Currently, people are more likely to die in a hospital bed where nursing care is essential. A patient’s death is a common occurrence in the work of nurses;it is associated with various stressful factors. In this study, an attempt was made to get to know nurses’ attitudes towards patient’s death.

Purpose of research

The purpose of the presented work was to learn the nurses’ attitudes towards a patient’s death.

Material and methods

The group of respondents consisted of 115 nurses. The study was carried out during the first two months of 2018. It used a diagnostic survey method, a survey technique, and as a research tool, the author’s ques-tionnaire.

Results

Nurses’ seniority does not affect their preparation for taking care of a dying patient. Longer work experi-ence does not guarantee better preparation for dealing with patient’s death. A higher frequency of contact with a dying patient does not decrease nurses’ commitment to helping dying patients or their empathy. The length of work experience does not significantly influence the level of empathy towards a dying person.

Conclusions

The higher education nurses have, the more ready they are to take care of a dying patient. A higher frequ-ency of contact with patient’s death sodoes not affect the level of empathy for the dying person that is expe¬rienced by nurses. The age of the nurse is not related to experiencing more negative emotions.