Nurses' attitudes to assisted suicide: sociodemographic factors

This literature review seeks to explore the factors that influence nurses' attitudes towards assisted suicide. A poll conducted by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) showed that 49% of nurses supported assisted suicide while 40% were opposed to it. A literature review resulted in 16 articles being identified for data synthesis using a recognised critiquing framework. The articles revealed four key themes: nursing specialty, level of education, geographical location and religion. It was concluded that these four themes are key to understanding a nurse's attitude towards assisted suicide. Nursing staff need to be aware of their own influences on this topic, since they will inevitably be involved in the process in some way or another, in countries where assisted suicide has been legalised.