INTRODUCTION
Although effects are extended in controlling the progress of a disease and restoring the well-being of patients, there are diseases which pass beyond the stage of being curable. Death is a natural occurrence in the health care setting and since nurses play a vital role in providing direct patient care, a patient’s death may bring a sense of loss and grief which could eventually affect the way health care services are appropriately and adequately provided to other patients. However, the degree of nurses’ grief as a reaction to patient death may vary in intensity. This variation may be influenced by several factors present in both the nurse and the nurse-patient relationship. This research study investigates the degree of
Evangelista (1981) noted that the reactions of nurses towards death depend on several factors. These comprise age, gender, socioeconomic status, marital status, religion, death education and nursing education. Dunn, Otten and Stephens (2005) added the factors such as race, nursing experience and nurses’ attitudes (percentage of time spent with terminally ill or dying patients).
Number of Years in Clinical Practice as a Registered Nurse as a variable
In a study conducted by Feudtner (2007) aimed to test the hypothesis that individual nurses’ level of hope is associated with greater self-reported comfort and competence in providing palliative care, it was found out that the number of years in nursing practice is significantly correlated with comfort working with dying children and their families. Using cross-sectional survey, the study showed that greater number of years in nursing practice is directly associated with higher levels of comfort working with dying children and their families. The level of grief individuals feel is affected not only by the event that caused the grief but also by intervening variables that are believed to influence the way they would respond to the grief-causing event experienced. These include: Age as a variable
The response of individuals to a certain event is said to be related to their age in that the years of acquiring experiences in life could either give the person a positive or negative