Relationships among death anxiety, communication apprehension with the dying, and empathy in those seeking occupations as nurses and physicians

Abstract

In light of the modern phenomenon of increased institutionalized deaths occurring in hospitals and in nursing homes, much of recent death attitude research has focused on health professionals. The present study explored possible relationships among measures of death anxiety, communication apprehension with the dying, and empathy in undergraduate nursing, premedical, and control subjects. Main effects for year in school indicated that seniors scored lower than freshmen on communication apprehension with the dying. The multivariate effects for field of study were also significant, with univariate results indicating that nursing students scored lower than controls on communication apprehension with the dying.

Dying, Death, and Medical Education: Student Voices

“…Early death anxiety studies from college students found that they were more likely to fear the dying and death of others over the dying and death of self. [22][23][24][25][26][27][28] Students cognitively acknowledged that death was a natural part of living but most of them did not like the idea of death. Our students conceded the nature of the relationship with the patient and the family can cause increased emotionality.…”

Health Care Professionals' Death Attitudes, Experiences, and Advance Directive Communication Behavior

“…101-508) to inquire of all adult patients whether they possess advance directives or would like to execute one. Although research suggests that death attitudes do influence the behavior of health care professionals (Haisfield-Wolfe, 1996;Kaye, Gracely, & Loscalzo, 1994;Servaty, Krejci, & Hayslip, 1996), no extant research has explored the influence of personal death attitudes and experiences on practitioners' advance directive communication behavior.…”

Social Work Students' Comfort With End-of-Life Care

“…Lastly, a study comparing nursing and pre-med students found no significant differences between disciplines relative to levels of communication apprehension with the dying. However, a significant, positive correlation between death anxiety and communication apprehension among groups was detected (r ¼ .42, p < .01; Servaty et al, 1996).…”

“…A general review of health-care professionals and comfort with end-of-life issues found studies conducted with nursing students and nurses (Allchin, 2006;Beck, 1997;Deffner & Bell, 2005;Demmer, 2000;Lewis, Espe-Pfeifer, & Blair, 1999;Payne, Dean, & Kalus, 1998;Servaty, Krejci, & Hayslip, 1996), as well as medical students and physicians (Kvale, Berg, Groff, & Lange, 1999;Lloyd-Williams & Dogra, 2003;Servaty et al, 1996;Williams, Wilson, & Olsen, 2005). In one qualitative study (Allchin), interviews with nursing students revealed care themes that included an initial hesitancy and discomfort in end-of-life situations, a need for emotionally processing the experience of providing care to the dying, and an eventual sense of personal and professional benefit from this work.…”

“…Death anxiety was assessed with the Templer Death Anxiety Scale (DAS; Templer, 1970), a classic measure of this construct that has been used in three of the previously reviewed studies (Demmer, 2000;Kvale et al, 1999;Servaty et al, 1996). Respondents were asked to respond to a series of 15 true or false statements (e.g., ''The thought of death never bothers me'') by checking ''true'' if a statement is ''true or mostly true'' as it applies to them or ''false'' if a statement is ''false or mostly false.''…”