Nurses' attitude towards end-of-life care in neonatal intensive care units

Infants with life-threatening conditions need to receive palliative care. Nurses should have appropriate attitudes due to their key role in end-of-life care to the patient.Therefore, this study is conducted with the aim of "determining attitude of nurses towards end-of-life care in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) ".
In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 214 nurses working in Neonatal intensive care unit of medical education centers affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti and Tehran University were selected by available sampling method. The data collection tool was a Frommelt Attitudes toward Care of the Dying Scale (FATCOD). Content validity and reliability of the questionnaire were analyzed and the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient was determined 0.76.
The mean and standard deviation of nurses' attitude toward end-of-life care were 97.8 ± 9.59 out of a total score ranging from 30 to 150, which is more than the mean total score of the tool. Meanwhile, there was a statistically significant relationship between attitude and job position (P = 0.008).
Regarding the mean scores of attitudes obtained by nurses, there seems to be a readiness and willingness to provide end-of-life care education for nurses in neonatal intensive care units. This study suggests the importance of educational planning in order to promote the attitude of neonatal nurses toward end- of- life care and the educational curriculum in this regard