A study of attitudes of nurses toward death and dying in tertiary health institutions in Cross River State

Abstract

The study was carried out to find out the attitudes of nurses’ toward death and dying patients in three (3) tertiary (health) institutions in Cross River State. A twenty (20) items close-ended questionnaire on the four points Likert scale model was designed and administered to a sample population of six hundred (600) respondents. The simple percentage method was used to analyze the demographic data of the respondents. Two null hypotheses were set and tested at 0.5 level of significance using Pearson product moment correlation analysis. The result of the analysis reveals that age and years of
experience of nurses have a favourable relationship with their attitudes toward dead and dying patients. It is concluded that the more one matures in acquisition of knowledge and skill, the better one gets to appreciate realities in nature especially as it relates to attitude towards dead and dying.