COVID-19: Attitudes towards death and beliefs about the terminal patient in intensive care and medical clinic nursing professionals

Abstract

Introduction: Death is a biological, psychological, and social process. Objective: To analyze nurses' attitudes towards death and beliefs about the terminally ill, and then compare them according to the type of service, Intensive Care Unit, or Medical Clinic, in which they worked during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Methods: Cross-sectional, correlational, and comparative study. The instrument measuring attitudes towards death is composed of 33 items and the classifications are avoidance, acceptance, fear, passage, departure and professional perspective, the degree of agreement is expressed from 1 to 5. The instrument that measures beliefs about the terminal patient has 15 items, the degree of agreement is expressed from 1 to 7. The data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: 78 professionals participated, no polarized attitudes towards death were expressed, but the one that obtained the highest score was acceptance. This correlated positively with the belief that both the family member and the patient should die at home (p=0,001) and the importance of receiving psychological and spiritual support (p=0,003). No differences were found between attitudes towards death and type of service, but ICU nurses expressed greater agreement than those of the medical clinic about the belief that it is best for both the family member and the patient to die at home (p=0,034). Conclusions: Attitudes towards death and beliefs about the terminally ill are related.