The effect of death education and experience on nursing students’ attitude towards death

Abstract

Nurses face their own fear of death whenever they come to the bedside of a dying patient. This fear must be confronted and reconciled before they can help others meet death with dignity. Examining one's attitude towards death is a difficult task that needs to begin in the student years, when attitudes towards working with the dying are formed. Nurse educators recognize that brief but effective ways of promoting this kind of personal awareness need to be found. An experimental study is described that investigated the effect of death education programmes and personal experience with death on the attitudes of nursing students. It was found that the death attitudes of inexperienced students who were in an experiential programme were more positive than similar students who received a didactic or placebo programme. Experienced students, however, were negatively affected by the experiential approach. The implications of these findings for nursing education are outlined.

Human gross anatomy: A crucial time to encourage respect and compassion in students

“…Third, students spend a great deal of time in contact with their peers in small social groups around the dissecting table. Such a non-threatening social environment provides a good opportunity for students to express their personal views (Bugen, 1979b;Hurtig and Stewin, 1990). Last, it is our observation that during the many hours of dissection ample time is available for discussion.…”

“…Most important, a memorial ceremony provides positive and healing closure to a course in human dissection that is intellectually and emotionally intense. Additionally, since a ceremony is experiential in nature, it is more effective than didactic methods in communicating values of respect and compassion (see Hurtig and Stewin, 1990;Durlak, 1979). As one student reminded us, exercising compassion is like exercising a muscle-the more you flex it the stronger it gets!…”

Effects of a Hospice and Palliative Care Education Program Including Meaning in Life on Attitudes Toward End-of-Life Care and Meaning in Life Among Nursing College Students

“…지금까지 이루어진 간호대학생을 대상으로 이루어진 임종간 호에 대한 교육은 국외연구 (Barrere, Durkin & LaCoursiere, 2008;Hurtig & Stewin, 1990)는 있었으나, 국내연구는 죽음준 비에 대한 교육이었으며 (조혜진, 김은심, 2005) …”

Palliative care and end of life issues in UK pre-registration, undergraduate nursing programmes

“…Thus, nursing care of seriously-ill patients and their families is an important part of interdisciplinary, holistic, end of life care (Kirchoff et al 2003). Nurses, however, need to recognise and confront their own reactions to death before they can help their patients to do so (Hurtig & Stewin 1990). …”