Cross-sectional study of attitudes toward death among Hungarian nurses

Aim: The study aimed to examine how socio-demographic factors, age, nursing specialty, and the frequency of end-of-life care provision influence nurses’ attitudes toward death and fear of death. Design: A cross-sectional quantitative study. Methods: Data analysis was conducted on a sample of 250 nurses. Attitudes toward death were measured with the Death Attitude Profile-Revised (DAP-R) and the Multidimensional Fear of Death Scale (MFODS). Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 23.0, applying descriptive statistics, the Shapiro-Wilk test, the Mann-Whitney U test, the Kruskal-Wallis test, Spearman’s rank correlation, and linear regression analysis. Results: No significant differences in fear of death were found between young (18–40 years) and middle-aged (41–65 years) nurses (DAP-R: p = 0.89; MFODS: p = 0.18). No significant correlations with age were observed (DAP-R: ρ = -0.004; p = 0.95; MFODS: ρ = 0.11; p = 0.09). The frequency of end-of-life care provision correlated significantly with fear of death on the DAP-R (ρ = 0.19; p = 0.003) and was negatively correlated with the MFODS (ρ = -0.15; p = 0.02). Conclusion: Fear of death showed no significant differences across age groups or clinical settings, except in relation to the frequency of exposure to dying patients.