Effectiveness of a Death-Education Program in Reducing Death Anxiety of Nursing Students

Abstract

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a death education program in reducing death anxiety experienced by nursing students. Twenty-two junior and thirty-two senior baccalaureate nursing students in a private sectarian liberal arts college were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. All participants were pre- and posttested with the State Form of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory following the viewing of a film depicting a death experience. Posttest analysis indicated that the death education program was effective in decreasing the death anxiety of some of the seniors, but it had an opposite effect on some of the juniors. This discrepancy in findings could result from the fact that seniors had prior supervised clinical experience with dying patients, and juniors did not have this experience.