Nurses' attitudes toward death in Oman: Prevalence and correlates in a nationwide sample

Death is an unavoidable feature of the human experience, and nurses play a critical role in caring for patients at the end of life. Nurses' attitudes toward death reflect their individual feelings toward death but may affect the quality of care provided at the end of life.

To explore the nurses' attitudes toward death and the factors that may affect the quality of end-of-life care delivery in Oman among patients cared for in tertiary hospitals.

A cross-sectional study design.

The study explored the nurses' attitudes toward death in Oman through a nationwide survey of the major governmental hospitals in Oman. The Death Attitude Profile-Revised scale was adopted to collect data from 1469 nurses working in tertiary hospitals using simple random sampling and population proportionate sampling methods.

The nurses in Oman were Omani (46.8%) or Indian (43.7%) and had a bachelor's degree in nursing education (54.5%), with a mean age and clinical experience being 35 and 11 years, respectively. The mean scores showed that they had slightly more positive (4.78 ± 0.92) than negative (4.30 ± 0.94) attitudes toward death. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed to explore correlates of negative and positive death attitudes. The negative death attitudes were significantly associated with nationality (β = -1.25, p = 0.007), clinical experience (β = 0.94, p = 0.012), and self-rated spirituality (β = 0.92, p = 0.043). The positive death attitudes were significantly associated with nationality (β = 2.40, p = 0.009), age (β = 3.71, p < 0.001), and clinical experience (β = 2.40, p = 0.004).

The current study shows that nurses in Oman have slightly more positive than negative attitudes toward death. The positive death attitudes were significantly associated with increasing age among nurses and their clinical experience. The negative attitudes were significantly associated with increasing age and self-rated spirituality.