Miedo a la muerte y su relación con la inteligencia emocional en estudiantes de enfermería

Abstract

Background and objectives: Nursing students must build emotional competence for facing death as part of their training program. This study was performed to describe the variables fear of death and emotional intelligence, to analyze the relationship between them, and to assess whether any differences exist with other sociodemographic variables. Method: This was a comparative, correlational, cross-sectional study in a population of 164 fourthyear nursing degree students. Data were collected using an anonymous questionnaire, which included sociodemographic variables, the Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale (CL-FODS or EMMCL in Spanish), and the Trait Meta-Mood Scale 24 (TMMS-24) for emotional intelligence. Descriptive statistics and Pearson's correlation coefficient were analyzed; Student's t-test was also used. Results: A total of 101 students took part in the study (61.6%). An inverse correlation was obtained between emotional regulation and fear of death. Significant differences exist between fear of death and gender. Prior experiences related to death and terminal care training are inversely correlated with fear of death. Conclusions: Women obtained higher fear of death scores when compared to men. Furthermore, the greater the emotional regulation, the lower the fear of death. It is important that attitudes towards death be acknowledged, and that training programs in emotional skills be provided to nursing students.