Opinions of nephrology nurses about death concept

Introduction: Dialysis patient had experienced the fear of pain and suffering, loneliness and fear of death. The high mortality rate in these patients indicates that about one-fourth of them are in their last year of life, suggesting the presence of death and dying in the haemodialysis unit. Nephrology nurses play an important role in these patients and their families in dealing with the fear of death and accepting the reality of death. Purpose: To determine the opinions of nephrology nurses about death concept.Materials and methods: This was a descriptive study conducted among nurses. A total of 68 nurses working on the hemodialysis units of public hospitals in Turkey completed the questionnaire. The tool used in the study was the Scale of Thorson-Powell Death Anxiety, the Scale of Death Related Depression and the Scale of Attitude Towards Death and Dying Patient. The results were analyzed statistically and p<0.05 was accepted as statistically significant. Results: Nephrology nurses had a medium-level avoidant attitude towards dying patient and their emotional state was depressive. They experienced medium-level death anxiety, the death related anxiety and depression and avoidant attitude towards the patient were found more in female nurses compared to male nurses. The nurses who worked for 1-10 years have less DRDS scores than nurses who worked for 20 years or above. İn addition nurses had an avoidant attitude towards dying patients as their DRDS and TPDAS scores increased. Conclusions: It can be suggested that nephrology nurses should be given training on how to take care of dying patients, and the continuity of this in-service training should be ensured.