ASSESSMENT OF ATTITUDES OF NURSES TOWARDS DEATH AND DYING OF PATIENTS IN TARABA STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of Nurses toward death and dying of patients in Taraba State, Nigeria. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, survey research design was employed. The population of the study consisted of all the Nurses working in General Hospitals as well as Specialist Hospitals, which was estimated at eight hundred and eighty-three (883). Multistage sampling procedure with appropriate techniques were used to draw 262 nurses working in General and Specialist Hospitals in Taraba State. The instrument for data collection was a twenty-four-item Attitudes of Nurses Towards Death and Dying of Patients Questionnaire (ANTDDPQ) developed by the researchers. Mean statistic was used to answer the research questions while Pearson product moment correlation statistic was used to test the hypothesis postulated for the study at .05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that nurses had negative attitudes towards death and dying of patients. It was recommended among other things that The Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria should improve the curriculum content for training nurses in order to pave way for more effective death education programme that can modify nurse negative attitudes towards death and dying of patients. This could be done by setting up a committee to look into the present curriculum with a view to adopting the integrating approach to the revision. When this is done the same committee should be entrusted with the supervision of the implementation of the revised curriculum who will report directly to the officer in charge of nursing education at the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.

Keywords: Attitudes, Death, Dying, Patients and Nurses