Correlation between nurses' attitudes towards death and their subjective well-being.

BACKGROUND

With China's ageing society, the number of deaths increased gradually. Clinical nursing staff are among the first to come into contact with dying patients and scientific attitudes towards death will affect not only the quality of hospice care but also the physical and mental health of the nursing staff. Subjective well-being (SWB) mainly points to the overall emotional and cognitive evaluation of life quality. However, few studies have examined the correlation between attitudes towards death and subjective well-being in nurses.

METHODS

A total of 810 nurses recruited from a tertiary hospital in Zhuhai were surveyed using the Chinese version of the Death Attitude Profile-Revised and the Subjective Well-being Scale. Pearson correlation coefficient was computed to analyze the correlation between attitudes towards death and the subjective well-being of the nursing staff.

RESULTS

Subjective well-being was correlated with attitudes towards death (P<0.05). Multivariate analysis found that serious illness/acute or chronic disease, night shifts, and initial education level among nurses were also factors significantly related to subjective well-being (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

The findings indicate a close correlation between nurses' attitudes towards death and their subjective well-being. Nursing managers should guide nursing staff to develop a more appropriate and healthier view of death so as to enhance their subjective well-being.