Attitudes of Nurses in Turkey Toward Care of Dying Individual and the Associated Religious and Cultural Factors

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the attitudes of nurses working in two university hospitals located in the west and east of Turkey toward care of dying individual as well as religious and cultural factors that influence their attitudes. The descriptive and comparative study was conducted with a total of 189 nurses who were working in adult inpatient clinics of two university hospitals in western (101 nurses) and eastern (88 nurses) Turkey between July and November 2016. The data were obtained by using the questionnaire and Frommelt Attitudes Toward Care of the Dying Scale. As a result of this study, it was determined that in terms of the status of receiving training the end-of-life care the majority of nurses received this training; however, this rate was higher (51.0%) in nurses working in the eastern hospital (p = 0.025). The nurses working in the east (51.6%) were determined to have more problems during caregiving due to their religious and cultural beliefs, the most frequent problem they experienced was "being uncomfortable due to privacy when giving care to patients from opposite gender" (57.1%). The emotions felt mostly by nurses during the care of dying patient were grief (nurses in the east = 48.5%, nurses in the west = 51.5%) and despair (nurses in the east = 40.4%, nurses in the west = 59.6%). Nurses working both in the east (98.27 ± 7.71) and in the west (97.19 ± 8.99) were determined to have positive attitude toward death, and there was no statistically significant difference between both groups in terms of the mean scores of the Attitudes Toward Care of the Dying Scale (p = 0.373). In accordance with these results, it is recommended to focus on death issues in end-of-life care during the nursing education and to support nurses with in-service trainings regularly after the graduation.

Attitudes of Front-Line Nurses Toward Hospice Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…This study showed that the overall attitudes toward hospice care score, median 102.00(interquartile range, 95.5-120.50), among front-line nurses was higher than that found in studies by Karadag et al (Mean ± SD, 97.19 ± 8.99) 20 and Lancaster et al (Mean ± SD, 101.45 ± 15.99) 21 but lower than that found in the study by Ho et al (Mean ± SD, 116.8 ± 11.4). 22 Therefore, the nurses’ attitudes toward hospice care was moderate.…”

Hospital Nurses’ Perception of Death and Self-Reported Performance of End-of-Life Care: Mediating Role of Attitude towards End-of-Life Care

“…In comparison to Western countries, Korean people are less likely to discuss death or dying situations, due to the belief that it is a failure on their part, as well as the traditional Korean view of death by a Confucian society, where people tend to extend meaningless life-prolonging treatment [4,35]. For this reason, different cultural backgrounds of nurses can be also considered as a contributing to positive or negative perceptions and attitudes [31,37].…”

Relationship Between Death Anxiety of Turkish Nurses and Their Attitudes Toward the Dying Patients

“…Nurses need to know physical and psychological needs of the patients, to develop a positive attitude toward death, and to accept death to provide better health care. A nurse who does not have a positive view of death and does not accept that death is a part of life may have negative emotions and behaviors when he or she encounters with death (Karadag et al., 2019). Nurses who find encounters with death and dying very difficult may undergo feelings of insufficiency, helplessness, defensiveness, or distress; and coping mechanisms, such as prevention, being distant, and avoidance may be adopted (Anderson, Kent, & Owens, 2015).…”

“…In this respect, the main aim to care for dying patients is to provide the patients with physical and spiritual relief, to increase their quality of life, such as through spending good times without pain, through the end of life, and to prepare them for death (Gurdogan et al., 2017). Health professionals need to be well prepared in knowledge, skill, and attitudes to be able to provide dignified end-of-life care (Guo & Jacelon, 2014; Karadag et al., 2019). Nurses reported regret when unable to provide a “good death” for a patient (Cottrell & Duggleby, 2016, p. 709).…”