The Effect Of Experience With The Terminally Ill On Nurses Attitudes Toward Death And Dying

Author : Margaret Shandor Miles
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 348 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Effects of a Small Group Education/counseling Experience on the Attitudes of Nurses Toward Death and Toward Dying Patients written by Margaret Shandor Miles and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this study was to measure the effects of a small group education/counseling experience on the attitudes toward death and toward dying patients of nurses who work in high risk death areas of local hospitals. The subjects were from three populations: registered nurses who work in high risk death areas of local hospitals, and who registered for a continuing education course on death and dying, registered nurses from high risk death areas of local hospitals who did not register for the course, and freshman students from a local university. The experimental design used four groups of subjects. One group experienced the treatment. Another group served as a waiting list control group and then experienced the treatment. Two groups were control groups. Subjects from all groups were given the outcome measures before the course began. Subjects from the treatment group were retested at the end of the six weeks course. Subjects from the waiting list control-treatment group were retested twice: after six weeks and twelve weeks, the latter after they had attended the six-week course. The treatment consisted of attendance at a six-week continuing education course entitled, "Coping with Death and Dying in High Risk Areas of Hospitals", in which techniques from both education and counseling were used. Two instruments were used as the dependent variables in the study: the Death Anxiety Semantic Differential, Parts I and II, and the Attitude Toward Dying Patients Questionnaire. The scores on the DASD, Part I and II were analyzed by analysis of variance, analysis of covariance, and two-way analysis of variance with the following results; (1) There were no statistically significant differences between the groups at the beginning of the experiment; (2) Subjects from the first treatment group had significantly greater changes in attitude toward death and toward dying patients as measured by the DASD, Part I and II, than subjects in the waiting list control group: (3) There was no significant difference between pre-post-attendance scores of both treatment groups as measured by the DASD, Part I because of interaction. There was a statistically significant difference between pre- and post-attendance scores of subjects from both treatment groups as measured by the DASD, Part II. A change score was computed for each subject based on answers to three of the questions on the Attitude Toward Dying Patients Questionnaire. Scores were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance which showed a statistically significant difference in attitude change toward death and dying between subjects who experienced the treatment and control group subjects. Responses to nineteen questions on the Attitude Toward Dying Patients Questionnaire were examined by item analysis of coded responses. Because of the lack of statistical analyses on these items, findings are considered extremely tentative. It appears, however, that the course did have an impact in changing attitudes of subjects from the first treatment group. Change of attitude of subjects from the waiting list control-treatment group occurred less frequently. It was concluded that attendance at the continuing education/counseling course on death and dying did appear to have an impact on changing attitudes toward death and toward dying patients of the nurses from high risk death areas who attended the course