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Nursing Students' Attitudes Towards Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia
Author(s) -
Sørbye Liv Wergeland,
Sørbye Sigrunn,
Sørbye Sveinung Wergeland
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of caring sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.678
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1471-6712
pISSN - 0283-9318
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-6712.1995.tb00398.x
Subject(s) - perception , nursing , psychology , test (biology) , social psychology , medicine , paleontology , neuroscience , biology
In 1991/92, 289 students from four different schools of nursing in Norway participated in a case‐related attitudes test. The nursing students answered questions concerning their personal views on the moral and legal implications of either assisting suicide or performing euthanasia. They also indicated whether they thermselves were willing to perform these acts. The results were compared with responses from a study on students from other faculties in 1988. The findings suggested that nursing students were significantly (p < 0.0005) more restrictive than the other students in their attitudes towards voluntary active euthanasia (VAE). Factors that influenced the nursing students' attitudes towards VAE were measured by the index of VAE. Religious belief (p < 0.0001), conservative political view (p < 0.01), and the perception of life as meaningful (p < 0.02) were the best predictors of the dependent variable.