Attitudes of Nursing Students and Nursing Faculty toward Death

Abstract

An investigation of the attitudes of 128 undergraduates, 66 graduate nursing students, and 62 nursing faculty at a university school of nursing in New York State toward death and dying was completed using the questionnaire, “Attitudes toward Death and Dying.” The subscale scores of fear of death of self, fear of death of others, fear of dying of self, fear of dying of others, general fear of death, and the consistency of attitudes toward death were compared according to levels of education and areas of clinical specialization. The results indicated that fears of death and dying decreased with increased education, but differences based on area of clinical specialization were not statistically significant.