A Study on the Nursing Student's Attitude Toward Death and Perception on Hospice Care

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine nursing students' attitude toward death and perception on hospice care. Methods: The survey was performed on 103 nursing students in one university in Goseong-gun, Gangwon-do. The data were collected by questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: Regarding the attitude toward death, 90.3% of the students had thought about death. They worried about sense of loss and sadness due to parting with family (31.1%). About half (51.5%) of the students considered death as a final process of the life. With regard to the perception of hospice, 92.2% of the students heard about hospice through books or nursing classes (65.0%). Public institutions running by government was considered to the students as the best hospice management institution (44.7%). The students thought a ideal model of hospice setting in Korea was hospital or institution specialized with hospice care (51.5%). They considered the barriers to effective hospice care in Korea was the lack of the public consensus on the need for hospice program (35.9%). The average perceptions about the purpose of hospice care was 4.33 whereas the average of the need of hospice care was 3.85. Conclusion: The findings of the study provide the basis for expanding nursing practice and education related to hospice care.