Fear of death in nursing students and tanatology courses

Introduction. The approach to death in nursing academic training is scarce or null. The student deal the death of his patients abruptly, without preparation or accompaniment, which affects their emotional stability and sometimes generates a rejection of attention with seriously ill patients or at the end of life. Objective. To determine the fear of death in nursing students and its relationship with attendance at thanatology courses. Method. Quantitative, cross-sectional, analytical study. The fear of death was evaluated using the Collet-Lester Scale in 516 Nursing students from different countries. Means of fear of death and Student's t test were obtained to identify the difference in means. Logistic regression was applied to determine the association of having attended a thanatology course and level of fear of death. Results. The mean age was 23 years. 81.78% corresponded to the female sex. 31.4% received a thanatology course. The mean level of fear of death was moderately high. Attendance to a thanatology course has a positive association with low levels of fear of death OR = 2.25 (p = 0.01). The high level of religiosity was related to a lower fear of one's own death. Conclution. Nursing students have a higher level of fear in the death dimension of others. It is necessary to include thanatology courses in the nursing curricula.