Keywords

age, death anxiety, death experience, gender, nursing education, palliative care

 

Authors

  1. Halliday, Lesley E. BSc (Hons)
  2. Boughton, Maureen A. RN, RM, Assoc Dip Community Health Nursing, Dip Nurse Ed, BEd, PhD RN

Abstract

Palliative nurses and a purposive sample of participants from three age ranges, 16-25, 26-49 and 50+ years were used to establish the effect of gender, age, and 'frequent' or 'infrequent' death experience on self reported death anxiety levels. All participants completed the Revised Death Anxiety Scale. Palliative nurses achieved lower scores than participants in all other groups. Death experience moderated anxiety for older individuals of 50+ years, and younger males in the 16-25 years age group, but increased anxiety for males and females aged between 26-49 years old and females aged 16-25 years. Results also indicated that death anxiety was affected by gender and age, as females scored higher than males, and older individuals (50+) achieved higher anxiety scores than their younger counterparts. Findings are discussed with reference to death education for student nurses.