Awareness of Nursing Students’ Biomedical Ethics and Attitudes toward Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Treatment

Abstract

Purpose: This study was done to analyze nursing students’ attitudes to life-sustaining treatment by measuring their awareness of biomedical ethics and resulting attitude toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. Methods: This study was a descriptive research to assess the level of nursing students’ awareness of biomedical ethics, attitude toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, and correlations between these variables. After the nursing students signed a consent form they were assessed. Data collection was done from September 1 to October 25, 2016, and analyzed using SPSS 23.0 WIM Program. Results: There was a negative correlation and significant difference between nursing students’ awareness of biomedical ethics and attitude toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. There was a significant correlation among attitude toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment and medical ethics, mortality ethics. Conclusion: The findings in the study indicate that it is necessary to provide nursing students with easy access to continuous education to help them establish an acceptable view of withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment.

Keywords

• Bioethics
• Life support care
• Nursing students