Authors

María Osés Zubiri1, Juan Manuel Casas Fernández de Tejerina2, Fredy Seguel Palma3

Position

1Estudiante de doctorado en Ciencias de la Salud. Universidad Pública de Navarra 2Doctor en Medicina. Universidad Pública de Navarra3Doctor en Enfermería. Instituto de Enfermería. Universidad Austral de Chile

Contact address

María Osés Zubiri. Avenida de Lezkairu, 3. 31192 Mutilva (Navarra).

Contact email: maria.oses.zubiri@navarra.es

Abstract

Objective: to determine the attitudes by Nursing professionals towards death, to analyze differences between the perceptions of professionals from Spain and Chile, and to determine the influence of cultural and sociodemographic factors in said perceptions.
Method: a descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted, using the Revised Death Attitude Profile questionnaire. There was access to 200 professionals from Valdivia (Chile) and 500 from Navarre (Spain). Non-parametric tests were used (Pearson’s X², Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis) in order to compare sociodemographic variables and their correlation with factor dimensions, granting a significance level of p< 0.05.
Results: the study included 325 professionals from Navarre and 114 from Valdivia (66.51%). Those from Navarre obtained a higher score in the Fear dimension (= 3.66 vs.3.35), and those from Valdivia in the Escape (= 4 vs. 3.55) and Approach dimensions (= 4.93 vs. 3.37). There was impact on Navarre professionals by factors such as civil status, practicing a religion, a low self-perception about emotional and technical management at the end of life, or having previous experiences of losing a close relative. Among those from Valdivia, there was impact by factors such as gender, age, having attended funerals during childhood, professing and practicing a religion, or working at a health center vs. a hospital.
Conclusions: both groups presented a neutral attitude towards death correlated with an increase in age, a higher attitude of approach when professing a religion, and fear towards the self-perception of low technical management of death; however, cultural and sociodemographic aspects had influence in both samples.

Keywords:

Death; attitude towards death; Revised Death Attitude Profile (DAP-R); copingculture

Versión en Español

Título:

Actitudes hacia la muerte de profesionales de Enfermería de España y Chile