The Impact of Death-Related Fears on Attitudes of Nurses in a Hospital Work Setting

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of death-related fears on the responses of RNs and LPNs employed in a general hospital to descriptions of work situations involving dying and death. Results were based on analysis of responses to a self-administered questionnaire. Four components of death-related fears were measured using the subscales developed by David Lester. Death-related fears were significant in predicting responses to situations where avoidance was not an effective strategy and where the nurse does not have a specific task to perform. These fears explain only a small portion of the variance for most of the eleven situations examined. It is concluded that the uneasiness nurses report in work situations involving dying and death in the hospital is more than a simple reflection of the nurse's own fears.