Examination of the relationship between nursing students' thanotophobia levels and their attitudes towards care for dying patients

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the level of tanatophobia of nursing students and their attitudes towards caregiving for dying individuals. Material and Method: This descriptive and correlational study was conducted with 342 nursing students studying at Ordu University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing in April-June 2024. The data were collected by face-to-face interview method using 'Personal Information Form', 'Tanatophobia Scale' and 'Frommelt Attitude to Caregiving for Dying Individual Scale'. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS for Windows 22 package program. In the analysis of data, Independent Groups t-test was used to compare paired groups, and Variance Analysis was used to compare multiple groups. Results: The mean age of the nursing students who participated in our study was 21.13±2.36 and 78.9% of them were female. It was determined that 7.9% of the students lost a first-degree relative in their family, 4.1% lost their father, 56.7% encountered death in clinical practice in the hospital, 84.2% felt fear when they encountered death, and 13.2% felt nothing. It was determined that 31.3% of the nursing students received end-of-life care training, and 47.6% did not find death-related training sufficient. It was determined that 31.3% of nursing students received end-of-life education, 47.6% did not find the education about death sufficient, 67.5% had difficulty in caring for dying patients and 30.7% felt fear of death while caring for dying patients. Conclusions: In this study, it was found that nursing students had high levels of tanatophobia and moderate levels of attitudes towards caring for dying individuals. A positive, low-level correlation was found between the Thanatophobia scale and the Frommelt Dying Person Care Attitude Scale. It was concluded that as the thanatophobia levels of nursing students increased, their attitudes towards dying patients also increased. Keywords: Nursing care, death, student nurse, thanatophobia, end of life