J Korean Biol Nurs Sci.  2024 Aug;26(3):218-227. 10.7586/jkbns.24.019.

Impacts of death perceptions, terminal care stress, and life satisfaction on attitudes toward end-of-life care among nurses at a tertiary hospital

• Shin YY
• Lee H

• KMID: 2558724
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.7586/jkbns.24.019

Abstract

Purpose
This study investigated the factors influencing attitudes toward end-of-life care among nurses at a tertiary hospital in Korea. Specifically, it examined the roles of nurses’ characteristics, death perceptions, terminal care stress, and life satisfaction.
Methods
The participants included 150 nurses working at a tertiary hospital, who were recruited between August 15 and September 19, 2023. Data were collected through an online survey and analyzed using descriptive statistics, the t-test, analysis of variance, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression analysis with SPSS/WIN 28.0.
Results
Nurses’ attitudes toward end-of-life care were positively correlated with death perceptions (β = .28, p < .001), 3 years or more of clinical experience (β = .25, p = .001), the experience of an acquaintance death (β = .22, p = .002) and life satisfaction (β = .20, p = .004). These variables explained 34.0% of the total variance in attitudes toward end-of-life care.
Conclusion
It is essential to develop and implement individualized end-of-life nursing education programs, particularly utilizing simulations, for nurses with limited clinical experience and low levels of death perceptions. Further research should explore attitudes toward end-of-life care among various healthcare providers with a broader regional scope to improve the overall quality of end-of-life care.

Keyword

Terminal care; Attitude to death; Personal satisfaction; 임종간호; 임종태도; 삶의 만족도