ATTITUDES IN FRONT OF DEATH: NURSES’ VIEWS IN THE HOSPITAL ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective: to analyze the relationship between personal characteristics and the profile of attitudes towards death among nurses in a Portuguese hospital. Method: a cross-sectional, quantitative, exploratory and descriptive study, carried out in a hospital in the North of Portugal, with 981 nurses, who answered a questionnaire composed by the scale of evaluation of the Profile of Attitudes about Death. Data collection was carried out in February and March 2018 in the services, and the findings went through descriptive and analytical statistical analysis with the aid of the SPSS software. Results: the nurses revealed to have the attitudes of approach (36.29 points), fear (27.82 points), neutrality (27.25 points), avoidance (17.48 points) and escape (15.52 points) in the face of death, and these were associated with the different socio-occupational characteristics of these professionals, including gender, marital status, age, having children, type of employment relationship, professional category, specialty, time of service, and the practice or belief of some religion. Conclusion: the profile of the nurses' attitudes towards death is influenced by their socio-professional characteristics, which points to the importance of rethinking training strategies in the academic environment, in health organizations and in services, favoring the better reception of patients and family members, but also in relieving the suffering of the professionals in the face of finitude.