Medical personnel and death

Increased life expectancy and increases in the number of terminally ill patients, the rapid change in healthcare technology and diagnostic protocols and treatment means that we must re-examine medico-social problems and the attitude of healthcare professionals when confronted by death and terminal illnesses. The aim of this paper is to analyse the attitudes of medical personnel towards death and terminal patients. A total of 375 (168 doctors and 207 nurses) were asked about their attitudes toward death and the terminally ill. The sample comprised 165 males and 210 females aged between 20 and 64 years (mean age 34.96, SD 7.83 years). The results showed that 51.0% of the subjects interviewed were afraid of death. Although 59.4% thought that they were personally prepared to treat and help the terminally ill and 75.3% professionally prepared for such a task 42.7% of those interviewed would prefer not to work with the terminally ill.