Nursing students’ relationships among resilience, life satisfaction, psychological well-being, and attitude to death

PURPOSE: This study attempted to examine the influence of resilience, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being on attitude to death. METHODS: A predictive correlational design was used. The participants were 184 nursing students from three universities of Korea. They responded to a self-report questionnaire, with items on demographics, resilience, life satisfaction, psychological well-being, and attitude to death. RESULTS: The mean score for attitude to death was 2.77±0.39 (range, 1–4), and a significant difference was observed depending on age, grade, and death-related education. Attitude to death was positively correlated with death-related education, resilience, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being. Results of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that death-related education and psychological well-being were significant predictors of attitude to death, explaining 26.6% of the latter. The most important factor was psychological well-being. CONCLUSION: Although death-related education and psychological well-being are two of the most influential factors among nursing students, no more than 30.4% of this study’s participants received death-related education. Death-related education is necessary to help nursing students so that they can cope positively with stressful situations by finding positive meaning. It is necessary to develop a systematic curriculum so that these students can establish a positive attitude to death.