OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate the effect of intern and resident's perspective of death on the attitude to Patients care. METHODS: Participants were recruited from interns and residents working in Chosun University Hospital. The questionnaires on perspective of death and attitudes to patient care include i) the perspectives of death and degree of fear of death ii) the attitude of telling truth to dying patients iii) the attitude to the disease frequently associates with the thought of "living with it is worse than dying", and iv) the avoidant or acceptable attitude when they are treating patients with low chance of recovery thus facing death. RESULTS: Eighty-eight interns and residents participated in this survey. The most frequent reply on the perspective of death was "death is a part, and a process of life" (48.9%). This group also choose more those types of diseases in which they think "living is worse than dying if oneself get it" (p=0.014). This group also showed more avoidant inclination in treating patients with low chance of recovery and facing death compared with other groups (p=0.068). Paradoxically those people who answered that they have no fear to death showed significantly more avoidant behavior against the care of dying patients (p=0.050). CONCLUSION: This study showed that interns' and resident's perspectives of death affect their pattern of patients care, particularly with avoidant patterns against patients. This study suggests the importance of the medical education on thanatology that including the ethical and moral aspects of death.
Education, Medical ; Humans ; Patient Care* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Thanatology

Recent developments in medicine in our society have drawn attention to various phenomena related to death, such as brain death, cardiac death, vegetative death, euthanasia, death with dignity, near-death experiences, hospice, and suicide. The definition and conception of death is significant because its reductionist determination may bring about a denial or taboo of death and a certain limitation on the modes of life and death. As religious traditions like Christianity and Buddhism and life and death studies show, human death cannot and should not be explained by physical and biological criterion of death like brain death or cardiac death alone. In a society with such a reductionist definition of death there can be no space for a mature culture of death and only a colossal number of miserable deaths like suicide. Therefore, as Kubler Ross argues, death should be defined in terms of considering the continued existence of certain realities as to psyche, spirit, and the meaning of life beyond physical and biological aspects. The medical and legal approach to death is greatly incomplete and restricted in taking into account the physical and biological aspect of death. Thus, it is necessary to precisely and deeply reconsider the definition and understanding of death from a broader and more comprehensive perspective rather than concentrating solely on the physical and biological criterion of death such as brain death or cardiac death.
Brain Death ; Buddhism ; Christianity ; Death ; Denial (Psychology) ; Euthanasia ; Fertilization ; Hospices ; Humans ; Right to Die ; Spirituality ; Suicide ; Taboo ; Thanatology

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop an evaluation instrument integrated and interdisciplinary death education for the human service areas such as nursing, social welfare, and education and to test the reliability and validity of it. METHOD: The subjects used to verify the instrument's reliability and validity were 407 students who were enrolled in the departments of nursing, social welfare, and education in universities located in Seoul, Pusan, Daegu, and Daejeon. The data was collected from April to May, 2005, and was analyzed by SPSS/WIN 12. RESULT: A factor analysis was conducted. Items with over a .40 factor loading and over a 1.0 eigen value were selected. Nine identified factors were learning about death, role of professionals, personal attitudes, hospice care, ethics and legal issues, death and dying, spiritual aspect of death, transcultural aspect of death, and multidisciplinary theory of death. The instrument consisted of 44 items and the reliability was a cronbach's of .953 CONCLUSION: Based on the study results, the content scale developed in this study was identified as a tool with a high degree of reliability and validity.
Thanatology ; Terminal Care ; *Questionnaires ; Professional Role ; Male ; Humans ; Hospice Care ; Female ; *Attitude to Death ; *Attitude of Health Personnel ; Adult

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop an evaluation instrument integrated and interdisciplinary death education for the human service areas such as nursing, social welfare, and education and to test the reliability and validity of it. METHOD: The subjects used to verify the instrument's reliability and validity were 407 students who were enrolled in the departments of nursing, social welfare, and education in universities located in Seoul, Pusan, Daegu, and Daejeon. The data was collected from April to May, 2005, and was analyzed by SPSS/WIN 12. RESULT: A factor analysis was conducted. Items with over a .40 factor loading and over a 1.0 eigen value were selected. Nine identified factors were learning about death, role of professionals, personal attitudes, hospice care, ethics and legal issues, death and dying, spiritual aspect of death, transcultural aspect of death, and multidisciplinary theory of death. The instrument consisted of 44 items and the reliability was a cronbach's of .953 CONCLUSION: Based on the study results, the content scale developed in this study was identified as a tool with a high degree of reliability and validity.
Thanatology ; Terminal Care ; *Questionnaires ; Professional Role ; Male ; Humans ; Hospice Care ; Female ; *Attitude to Death ; *Attitude of Health Personnel ; Adult