Effect of Death Education Course on Death Anxiety of Clinical Respiratory Therapist

Abstract

Background:

Respiratory therapists are often exposed to the process of dying and dying of patients due to their work, and this process is prone to induce anxiety. Therefore, this study explores the effect of death education courses on clinical respiratory therapists' death anxiety, so as to understand whether death education courses can improve clinical respiratory therapists' death attitudes and reduce death anxiety.

Methods:

This study was a prospective cross-sectional study design and selected respiratory therapists from Taiwan Beizhong Nandong Medical Center as subjects. The survey was conducted with a structured questionnaire, including the demographic data of the respiratory therapists and the situation of the Revised Death Anxiety Scale (RDAS) (Cronbach's α = 0.91, retest reliability 0.93). A total of 171 respiratory therapists were enrolled in this study, including 75 in the first group (without taking the death education course) and 96 in the second group (having taken the life and death education course).

Results:

The results of the study found that: In terms of death anxiety, the respiratory therapists in the first group had worse death anxiety scores than the respiratory therapists in the second group (P < .001). Items included: I was terrified at the thought of surgery (2.81 ± 0.71 vs. 2.45 ± 0.80, P < .002). I was terrified when it came to painful near-death (2.84 ± 0.72 vs. 2.56 ± 0.82, P < .019).I'm not particularly afraid of getting cancer (1.93 ± 0.74 vs. 2.20 ± 0.76, P < .024).I don't worry about being helpless (2.25 ± 0.66 vs. 2.78 ± 0.64, P < .010). I don't worry about being in control of my life. (2.45 ± .59 vs 2.67 ± .67, P < .033). What happens to the body after death doesn't bother me (2.64 ± .72 vs. 2.89 ± .71, P < .028) among other items. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the total score of death anxiety, fear of painful process, loss of autonomy, life after death, and helplessness (P > .05).

Conclusions:

Accepting death education courses can enable clinical medical staff to gain more intelligence, reduce anxiety about patient death during the care process, and provide better care for dying patients.