Investigation of intensive care nurses' attitudes and behaviors towards end-of-life care and attitudes towards death

The purpose of this study was to examine the intensive care nurses' attitude and behaviors towards the end-of-life care and attitudes towards death. The study was conducted on voluntarily participating 200 nurses working at the intensive care units of the hospitals in Çorum Province. Ethics committee approval and institutional permissions were obtained, required for the study. Research data were collected using the descriptive characteristics form, the Intensive Care Unit Nurses' Attitude and Behaviors towards the End-of-Life Care scale, and the Death Attitude Profile Revised (DAP-R) scale. When analyzing the data, frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, and Spearman correlation analysis were conducted. The mean age of the nurses was 28.78 ± 6.43, the mean total years of service in nursing was 6.72 ± 5.65, and 63.5% of them were women. When the scores gathered from the sub-dimensions of the Nurses' Attitude and Behaviors towards the End-of-Life Care Scale were examined, the mean score of the attitude sub-dimension was 34.07 ± 5.02, the mean score of the behavior sub-dimension was 16.56 ± 4.18, and the mean score of the overall total was 50.62±7.31. There is a significant difference between the mean scores of the Intensive Care Unit Nurses' Attitude and Behaviors towards the End-of-Life Care Scale total score and attitude and behaviors sub-dimensions (p<0.05), depending on whether or not the patient knew they were going to die, and who should tell the patient that they were going to die. When the nurses' scores gathered from the sub-dimensions of the DAP-R scale were examined, it was found that the mean score of the fear of death sub-dimension was 26.12±8.06, the mean score of the death avoidance sub-dimension was 18.14±6.46, the mean score of the neutral acceptance sub-dimension was 27.10±5.27, and the mean score of the accepting approach sub-dimension was 48.77±11.22, the mean score of the sub-dimension of not accepting death was 19.37±7.15, and the mean score of the overall total was 139.50±22.61. There was a statistically significant, positive, and very weak correlation (r=0.178) between nurses' total score of the DAP-R and the attitude score. There was a positive, very weak correlation between the DAP-R total score and the behavior score (r=0.002), and a very weak positive correlation between the DAP-R total score and the Attitude and Behavior Scale total score (r=0.138). It is suggested to organize in-service trainings to nurses regarding the end-of-life process and care services for the dying patient and his/her family, and to conduct qualitative research on the attitudes towards the terminally ill patient and death awareness.