Fear of Death between Nursing Students in the Academic and Professional Programs

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Nursing students inevitably witness dying and death during their education and continue throughout their professional practice. These experiences can trigger fear of a patient’s death, fear of their own death, or fear of the dying process. Knowing students’ level of fear is necessary to enhance the preparation of the students cognitively, emotionally, physiologically, psychologically, and spiritually. Students’ fear of death also needs to be identified and addressed because this can affect their attitude in facing death, dying patients, carrying out nursing care for patients at the end of their lives, and their confidence. There is no study regarding feelings towards the dying process, particularly fear of death among students in the Indonesian context. AIM: This study explored the levels of fear of death and the differences between students enrolled in the sophomore academic program and students in the professional program. METHODS: This study used a quantitative comparative with a cross-sectional design. Collett-Lester’s Fear of Death Scale was translated to Indonesia and used to measure the fear of death among the respondents. Independent t-test was used to determine the difference between the two groups. All 50 professional students and 50 students in the academic program were included in this study. RESULTS: The fear of death among the sophomore students in the academic program was moderate to high, while those in the professional program were moderate. Furthermore, the t-test revealed a p-value of 0.010, indicating a significant difference in the level of fear of death among sophomore academic program students compared to students in the professional program. CONCLUSION: There is a significant difference in the level of fear of death between sophomore nursing students in the academic program compared to those in the professional nursing program.