THE ATTITUDES, FUTURE ROLE & KNOWLEDGE OF NURSING STUDENTS TOWARDS EUTHANASIA BECAUSE OF UNBEARABLE MENTAL SUFFERING IN BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: A PILOT STUDY

Relevance This is the first study that investigates the opinions and attitudes with respect to UMS euthanasia of nursing students. The purpose of this study is to determine the attitudes, future role and knowledge of nursing students regarding UMS euthanasia. Student nurses are involved in the care of psychiatric patients, who may thus be confronted with difficult end-of-life decisions such as UMS euthanasia. Nurses play an important role in the healthcare team and are closely involved in the daily care of patients due to the nature of their work. Therefore, it is relevant to prepare student nurses for their future role, as UMS euthanasia is legal and conducted in Belgium. Methodology A monocentre quantitative descriptive survey with a self-administered questionnaire was used for this study. All bachelor and graduate nursing students of an university college in Brussels (Belgium) were invited to participate. A total of 103 students responded to the questionnaire of whom 63 students finalised the questionnaire. The board of the university college approved the study. An introductory text accompanied the online questionnaire. There was a guarantee of anonymity for both organization and respondents. We developed a questionnaire based on an existing one by Demedts et al. (2018) about the attitudes of mental health nurses towards UMS euthanasia (α = .76). A 5-point Likert scale was used in most questions (completely agree to completely disagree). The questionnaire was carried out using LimeSurvey© as an online tool. Descriptive statistics were used for the analysis using SPSS 21 © (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, IBM, North Castle, New York, USA). The answers agree and totally agree were combined to agree, with similar treatment of totally disagree and disagree. Results The nursing students are supportive towards UMS euthanasia. Furthermore, the nursing students indicated they will have a crucial role in the euthanasia process, once graduated. Two out of three nursing students perceived a lack of knowledge (63.5%) and skills (65.1%) regarding UMS euthanasia. Nursing students report that UMS euthanasia has not been a topic during their education (61.9%). Almost all nurses point out that UMS euthanasia should be addressed in nursing education (87.3%), containing theoretical knowledge and practical skills (88.9%). Conclusions & Significance The nursing students in our sample are more supportive towards UMS euthanasia as nursing students in countries were euthanasia is illegal. Furthermore, the nursing students indicated they will have a crucial role in the euthanasia process, once graduated. Besides practical knowledge and skills directly related to euthanasia, education also needs to cover the broader context of end-of-life care, supportive care and basic skills related to death and dying. Keywords: euthanasia, nursing students, psychiatry, unbearable mental suffering