Objective:

To explore the views of nurses on death in their practice, and their perception about physicians’ actions dealing with terminally ill patients.

Materials and methods:

Two hundred ninety-five nurses with experience caring for terminally ill patients responded to a questionnaire developed for this study.

Results:

The majority of participants considered that terminally ill patients should know about their prognosis. Although nearly all nurses said that when a patient brings up the subject and they talk with the patient about death, several of the nurses find it difficult to establish a relationship with these patients. Concerning nurses’ perception about physicians’ actions, they considered that physicians avoid the subject of death with their patients more than the physicians acknowledge.

Conclusions:

More education and training of physicians and nurses on end-of-life issues is needed to improve communication with dying patients and to provide them with better care.