Perspectives on Death and the Awareness of Mortality in Relatives of Intensive Care Patients: A Descriptive Study.

Abstract

Background: Various factors, including their psychology, their perspective on the world, their religion, the culture in which they live and their previous experiences, may affect an individual's perception and awareness of mortality.

Aim: This study was conducted to determine perspectives on death and awareness of mortality in relatives of patients who were receiving treatment in the intensive care unit of a university hospital in Turkey.

Study design: This descriptive and correlational study was conducted at a university hospital in Turkey between July 15, 2022, and May 15, 2024. A total of 305 relatives of intensive care patients participated in the study. Data were collected using a Relatives' Introductory Information Form, the Multidimensional Mortality Awareness Measure (MMAM) and the Death Perspectives Scale (DPS). A structural equation model (SEM) was developed using the maximum likelihood approach to investigate the direct effects on the dependent variable. The impact of the DPS subscale scores on the MMAM scores was analysed through path analysis.

Results: The path coefficients between the MMAM and the subscales of the DPS, specifically Afterlife-of-Reward (β = 0.213), Unknown (β = 0.125), Failure (β = 0.156) and Courage (β = 0.145), were found to be statistically significant. This model was found to explain 30.1% of the variation in the MMAM scores.

Conclusions: This study found a relationship between the levels of awareness of mortality and death perspective in the relatives of patients.

Relevance to clinical practice: Intensive care nurses should provide family-centred care. Death counselling and education should be provided in order to prepare relatives to accept the impending death of the patient.