The relationship between death and hospice care attitudes among nursing interns: a cross-sectional survey

The aim of this article is to explore the attitudes towards death and hospice care among nursing interns, as well as their relationship, and to analyze the influencing mechanisms. As an indispensable part of the hospice care multidisciplinary team, nurses play an important role in patient hospice care. As new members of the nursing team, nursing interns will be directly or indirectly involved in the care of dying patients during the clinical practice. Their attitude towards death and hospice care will directly affect the quality and level of hospice care. A cross-sectional correlational design. 317 nursing interns from a tertiary teaching hospital were selected as the research subjects. General information questionnaire, Chinese version of Death Attitude Profile-Revised (DAP-R), and Chinese version of Frommelt Attitude Toward Care of the Dying Scale-Form B (FAT COD-B) were used for the questionnaire survey, and SPSS statistical software was used for data analysis. The total score of death attitude among 317 nursing interns was 94.0 (83.5, 101.0) points, and the total score of hospice care attitude was 97.0 (91.0, 102.0) points. The neutral acceptance of death attitude was significantly positively correlated with hospice care attitude (r = 0.356, p < 0.01), while death fear, death avoidance, approach acceptance, and escape acceptance were significantly negatively correlated with hospice care attitude (r=-0.420, r = -0.343、r = -0.315、r = -0.227, p<0.01). Death avoidance plays a mediating role between fear of death and hospice care attitudes. Nursing interns have a slightly positive attitude towards death, but still exhibit negative emotions. The hospice care attitude is at a moderate level, and death avoidance plays a mediating role between death fear and hospice care attitude (β=-0.136, P < 0.001), providing a new perspective for nursing managers and educators to improve the hospice care attitude of nursing interns.