Determination of attitudes and behaviors of intensive care nurses towards end-of-life care and factors that prevent and support

Aim: This study was conducted to determine the attitudes and behaviors of intensive care nurses toward end-of-life care and the factors that prevent and support these attitudes and behaviors. Method: The sample of this study, using cross-sectional descriptive and correlational methods, was determined as 267 intensive care nurses. The data were collected with the "Descriptive Characteristics Form," the "Attitudes and Behaviors of Intensive Care Nurses towards End-of-Life Care Scale," and the "Perceived Barriers and Supportive Behaviors Scale in End-of-Life Care of Intensive Care Nurses." Results: The "Attitudes and Behaviors of Intensive Care Nurses towards End-of-Life Care Scale" mean scores of intensive care nurses were 35.42±4.6 for the Attitude subdimension, 18.17±4.66 for the Behavior subdimension and 53.59±7.81 for the total scale. Reliability coefficients were 0.62 for Attitude, 0.70 for Behavior, and 0.74 for the total scale. A very weak positive relationship was determined between the mean attitude scores and age, total working time, working time in intensive care, working time in the current intensive care unit, and adequate levels of education and end-of-life care knowledge. A very weak positive relationship was found between the mean behavior score and income level. The item with the highest barriers score in the Obstacles subdimension of the "Perceived Barriers and Supportive Behaviors towards End-of-Life Care" scale was "Families do not want to accept the patient's poor prognosis." The item with the highest supportive behaviors score in the supportive behaviors subdimension was determined as "Physicians meet with family members after the patient's death." Reliability coefficients were determined as 0.88 for the Barriers subdimension and 0.89 for Supportive Behaviors. Conclusion: It was determined that the attitudes and behaviors of intensive care nurses toward end-of-life care differ significantly according to their introductory and professional characteristics. The most intensely perceived obstacle was family-based, and the most intensively perceived supportive behavior was the physician informing the family about the patient's death. Key words: intensive care nursing, end-of-life care, attitude and behavior, influencing factors