Influence of Attitude to Death and Resilience on Terminal Care Attitude among Korean Nursing students / 한국간호교육학회지

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: This study aimed to explore the influences of attitude to death and resilience on terminal care attitude among Korean nursing students. METHODS: Participants were 230 nursing undergraduates from two nursing schools in Korea. The students responded to a self-report questionnaire that included demographics, attitude to death, resilience, and terminal care attitude. RESULTS: The majority of the participants who had undertaken a clinical practicum had experienced the death of a patient during their clinical placements but had not yet received any support from their instructors or professionals, but also academic training on patients' death or terminal care. The mean score of terminal care of the students who had death-related education was significantly higher than among those who had not. Regression analysis indicated that attitude to death, grade, and resilience were the most significant predictors of terminal care attitude. These explained 30.3% of their terminal care attitude. CONCLUSION: Death-related education is needed throughout the curriculum including not only death but also resilience to develop emotional competences. In this way, nursing undergraduates will be better prepared to cope positively and constructively with the suffering and death they encounter, and thus may minimize the distress they experience in the patients' dying process. It may also create a significant positive increase in their terminal care attitude.