Factors affecting the attitude toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment of nurses working at long-term care hospitals / 한국간호교육학회지

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#This study was a descriptive study to identify factors affecting the attitude toward life-sustaining treatment of nurses working at long-term care hospitals. @*Methods@#Data were collected through structured questionnaires from August 2nd to 27th, 2019. Study participants consisted of 163 nurses who were working for at least 6 months from 7 long-term care hospitals in B and K city. Data were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe' test, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and hierarchical regression with SPSS WIN v 21.0. @*Results@#There were significantly positive correlations between awareness of good death (r=.46, p<.001) and perception of patients’ rights (r=.32, p<.001). The factors affecting participants’ attitude toward life-sustaining treatment were awareness of good death (β=.35, p<.001) and their own view of death (β=.24, p=.001), which explained about 27.0% of the attitude toward life-sustaining treatment. @*Conclusion@#Based on these results, it is necessary to develop nursing educational materials that can establish values for deaths, and cultivate legal and ethical knowledge related to attitude toward life-sustaining treatment. In addition, since the severity of a patient’s condition varies and the characteristics of the institution vary depending on the type of hospital, a study is needed on the relevance of variables considering the hospital environment.