Role of Attitude to the Care of a Dying Patient in Prediction of Clinical Anxiety and Sleep Quality of Nurses

Abstract

Introduction: Due to their job nature, nurses are the first group whose time is mostly associated with dying patients and their families. The aim of this study was to determine the role of attitude to the care of a dying patient in prediction of clinical anxiety and sleep quality of nurses in Zahedan city. Methods: This is a descriptive-correlational study. The statistical population of the study included all nurses working in medical sciences hospitals of Zahedan. 130 nurses were selected by available sampling method; they completed the Clinical Anxiety Scale of Thyer & Westhuis (1989), Scale for the End of Life Caregiving Appraisal of Lee, Yoo & Kim (2009) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Questionnaire (1989). Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and stepwise regression and SPSS19. Results: Findings showed that in components of attitude to patient care there was a positive correlation between physical suffering and burden with clinical anxiety (P<0.01); there was also a negative correlation between maturation with clinical anxiety (P<0.01) and social support pursuit with clinical anxiety (P<0.01). There was a positive correlation between physical suffering and burden with quality of sleep (P<0.01), and there was a negative correlation between maturation and sleep quality (P<0.01). Also, in stepwise regression analysis, two components of burden and maturation of 0.165 variance of clinical anxiety and components of physical suffering and burden a 0.254 predicted the variance of sleep quality. Conclusion: According to the results, the positive attitude to the care of a dying patient can help to reduce the level of clinical anxiety and increase the quality of sleep in nurses.

Keywords

• attitude
• end-of-life care
• clinical anxiety
• sleep quality