Hemşirelik öğrencilerinin iyi ölüm algısına ilişkin tutumlarının incelenmesi (Investigation of Nursing Students’ Attitudes Towards Perceptions of Good Death)

Turkish

Objective: Our study aimed to examine the attitudes toward perception of good death of senior nursing students and the factors affecting it.Methods: The population of the descriptive study consisted of the senior students (N=393) studying in the Nursing Faculty of a university in 2016–2017. A total of 315 students who agreed to participate in the study were included in the sample. Data in the study were collected using the Student’s Introductory Information Form and the Good Death Scale. The Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney U-tests were used for data analysis. Written consent was obtained from the ethics committee, the institution where the research was conducted, and the students.Results: Most students (98.4%) were between the ages of 21 and 25 years, 79.4% had cared for terminally ill patients during clinical practice, 64.1% had felt incompetent about caring for terminally ill patients, 60.3% had received training on death, 93.7% considered good death to be particularly important for patients, and 94.6% defined good death as the patient dying with the least pain. Students had a mean Good Death Scale score of 56.12 ± 7.06. Students who had received training on death and those who considered good death particularly important for the patient had more positive attitudes toward perceptions of good death.Conclusion: Nursing students’ attitudes toward good death perceptions were found to be very positive.