Abstract
AIM: To explore final year nursing students' attitudes towards euthanasia due to unbearable mental suffering by using the adapted and validated Euthanasia Attitude Scale.
DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey.
METHODS: Explorative, descriptive cross-sectional study conducted using an e-mail survey between October 2020 and March 2021 by a sample of final-year baccalaureate nursing students (n = 273) from eight of the eleven Flemish university colleges. The actual questionnaire contains 21 questions and was developed based on a consensus reached following independent translations. The psychometric properties of the Euthanasia Attitude Scale were assessed, including reliability and validity. Independent-sample Mann-Whitney U-test was used to investigate relation between demographic and education-related data, and domain and total score of the UMS-EAS-NL. This study received ethical approval from the Ethical Committee of the University Hospital Brussels, Belgium.
RESULTS: McDonald's omega was 0.838 for the total Euthanasia Attitude Scale scores, supporting the validity of the questionnaire. A statistically significant difference in 'Naturalistic beliefs' score was found relating to the year of birth. There are clinically important results between those students who have been involved in euthanasia and those who have not.
CONCLUSIONS: Most of the final-year nursing students supported the probability of patients' access to euthanasia due to unbearable mental suffering. To monitor adequate care, it is necessary to prepare nursing students adequately for this complex matter.
IMPACT: To date, no large-scale study has examined nursing students' attitudes towards euthanasia because of unbearable mental suffering. It is expected that nursing students may be confronted with such a euthanasia request during an internship, or later in their professional career, in countries where euthanasia is legal. Students showed a high acceptability towards UMS-euthanasia. Clinically significant differences were found for students who had ever been involved in euthanasia.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 676-685 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Journal of Advanced Nursing |
| Volume | 79 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Early online date | 19 Dec 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Feb 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We would like to thank the professionals from the field for their help with the translation of the questionnaire.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Copyright:
Copyright 2023 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Keywords
- attitudes
- end of life
- mental health
- nursing students
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UMS-euthanasia and nursing students' attitudes
Demedts, D. (Creator), Mendeley Data, 27 Apr 2022
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