Introduction: Nurses frequently confront critical situations involving death and mortality, which require specific emotional and practical skills. Integrating a conceptual model of death into nurse training could be an effective strategy to help them acquire these essential competencies.
Objective: This study aimed to assess the educational impact of a conceptual model of death on the attitudes of nurses working in emergency and intensive care units at selected Aja hospitals.
Material and Methods: A semi-experimental study was conducted in 2023, involving 96 nurses from Aja hospitals with experience in end-of-life care. The study included two intervention groups and one control group, with nurses randomly assigned to each group. For the intervention groups, the researcher facilitated two workshop sessions with 8-10 participants per group, focusing on Model A8 content and incorporating shared experiential learning. No intervention was administered to the control group. Data collection involved a demographic questionnaire, the Nurses' Attitudes toward Death Scale, and the Templer Death Anxiety Scale, administered before the intervention, immediately afterward, and two weeks later. Data were analyzed using
parametric tests, with a significance threshold of 0.05.
Results: Demographic variables did not significantly differ among the three groups (P>0.05). Preintervention death attitude scores were similar between the intervention groups (1: 137.12±35.16, 2: 140.65±76.13) and the control group (141.78±40.15) (P=0.445). Post-intervention and two weeks later, death attitude scores revealed significant differences across groups (intervention 1: 126.53±9.68, 2: 133.12±9.88, control: 133.12±14.53) (P<0.001). The difference between the control group and the emergency department remained significant two weeks after the intervention (P<0.001).
Conclusion: Based on these findings, it is recommended that training on the concept of death be incorporated into the education of nurses in emergency and intensive care settings to enhance their preparedness and competency in end-of-life care.