The effects of a short-term death training program on nursing home nursing staff

This study examines the effects on nursing home nurses of a two-day training program concerned with nurses and their response to the dying patient. Utilizing the Solomon four-group design, the study investigates whether exposure to information on death and dying (a) results in the acquisition of greater knowledge about death and dying, (b) is accompanied by a more positive attitude toward the elderly, and (c) is accompanied by a change in anxiety about death. Based on t tests and one-way analyses of covariance, the results point up the mixed nature of short-term training programs. It was found that there was a significant increase in the nurses' knowledge about death and dying, there was no change in their attitudes toward the elderly, and there was a significant increase among the nurses in the death anxiety experienced. This is not to suggest that training programs of this sort should not be conducted with nursing home staff. On the one hand such programs provide information useful for job performance. On the other hand they create some sensitization to death, which at the very least could give nurses greater insights into the concerns of the patients and perhaps stimulate empathetic responses.