DEATH CONCERN AND DEATH OBSESSION IN IRANIAN NURSES

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Healthcare Studies
• Sociology

Background:

• Healthcare professionals, particularly nurses, frequently confront mortality.
• There is a need to understand if this exposure influences their psychological responses to death.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether nurses exhibit higher death concern and obsession compared to non-nursing hospital staff.
• To compare psychological responses to death between two distinct hospital workgroups.

Main Methods:

• A comparative study involving 56 female Iranian nurses and 56 female non-nursing hospital staff.
• Utilized Persian-translated Death Concern Scale and Death Obsession Scale for data collection.

Main Results:

• No significant differences were found between nurses and non-nursing staff in death concern scores.
• Similarly, no significant differences were observed in death obsession scores between the two groups.

Conclusions:

• Exposure to death in a hospital setting does not appear to uniquely increase death concern or obsession in nurses compared to other staff.
• Recommends universal death education programs for all hospital employees, irrespective of their role.