Effects of an emotional education program on death anxiety in nursing students

Objectives. To assess the effect of an emotional education intervention on death anxiety levels in nursing students who completed a course on palliative care and to analyze the association between death anxiety and emotional intelligence. Method. A cross-sectional, repeated-measures, before-after study was performed. The students completed a questionnaire containing the death anxiety inventory (DAI) and an emotional intelligence scale (Trait Meta-Mood Scale [TMMS]) at the beginning and end of the course. The scores obtained were compared using Student's t-test for paired samples and Pearson's correlation coefficients. Results. Although post-intervention scores were lower for death anxiety and higher for emotional intelligence, the differences were slight and non-significant. In post-test scores, death anxiety was negatively correlated with the three factors of emotional intelligence and was significantly correlated with the factor of comprehension. The results suggest that greater understanding of death and acceptance of death as a natural process lowers death anxiety levels. Conclusions. These results support the approach adopted by numerous studies showing that nursing professionals feel uncomfortable and very often emotionally overwhelmed when treating terminally ill patients and their families. Consequently, nurses should be provided with specific training that would allow them to develop effective strategies for coping with death anxiety.