Effect of experience on nurses' responses to dying and death in the hospital setting.
To examine the impact of work experience on nurses' anticipated responses to situations involving dying and death in the hospital setting, 62 responses to a questionnaire were analyzed. Licensed practical nurses, it was found, had developed coping mechanisms to alleviate the uneasiness associated with unstructured interaction with dying patients. Among registered nurse respondents, however, uneasiness associated with such interaction was positively related to nursing experience. Experience was not significant in predicting responses of either RNs or LPNs to statements describing the event of death, proximity to a dead body, or provision of nursing care to dying patients.
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001293:Attitude to Death; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires