[Fear of death among nursing students].

OBJECTIVE

To assess, using a sample of nursing students, the fear of their own death and that of others and its relationship with several sociodemographic variables: gender, age, academic year, geographical origin, marital status and previous experiences with death.

METHODS

An observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study including 243 nursing students who completed a questionnaire containing the sociodemographic variables and the Spanish version of the Collet-Lester's Fear of Death Scale (CLFDS). Means and standard deviations, Student t test, ANOVA and Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients, were calculated in the statistical analysis.

RESULTS

A negative correlation was obtained between the CLFDS and age. Women scored higher on the four subscales of the CLFDS. Religious belief and practice were negatively correlated with fear of own death. Previous experiences with death are negatively correlated with three subscales of the CLFDS. Single nursing students scored higher on two subscales of the CLFDS. Statistical significance with the academic year was observed in the subscale of fear of others' death.

CONCLUSIONS

To plan the training of nursing students based on specific competences on caring at the end of life, it is very important to understand the students' attitudes toward death. It is also important to understand the related variables, as well as the elements that trigger more fear or anxiety in the students, which can affect the quality of care they provide in their future professional practice.