title: Nursing students' concerns about end of life in California, Norway, and Sweden.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate concerns about dying for newly admitted nursing students from California, Norway, and Sweden.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 389 undergraduate nursing students who had just started their nursing programme participated. Data was collected with a questionnaire that included two instruments-the Concerns about Dying instrument and the Sense of Coherence instrument-and background questions. The data was analysed using statistical and content analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were statistically significant differences between the three groups of students in terms of their age, their experience in health care, whether they had previously attended a dying patient, the age at which they first encountered the death of a loved one, and their concerns about dying. Two main categories emerged from the analysis of the open questions: 'attending to dying and grieving persons' and 'thinking about one's own death'.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study provides important insights into the concerns that newly admitted students bring to the nursing programme.
authors: California State University, San Bernardino, San Bernardino 92407, USA. nursestoner@gmail.com
authors: Marilyn
authors: M
authors: Smith-Stoner
authors: Marie Louise
authors: ML
authors: Hall-Lord
authors: Birgitta
authors: B
authors: Hedelin
authors: Kerstin
authors: K
authors: Petzäll
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001293:Attitude to Death; D002140:California; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004506:Education, Nursing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009664:Norway; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D013548:Sweden; D013727:Terminal Care