The opinions of nurses and physicians related to euthanasia
Alper Beder 1 * , Gül Pınar, Gamze Aydoğmuş, Mahmure Can, Handan Eren, Nihal İşler, Sevinç Yılmaz, Müberra Birli
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1 Başkent Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Fakültesi Hemşirelik ve Sağlık Hizmetleri Bölümü, Eskişehir Yolu, 20. km. Bağlıca Kampusü, Çayyolu/Ankara, Turkey* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Objective: The research was conducted to investigate the opinions of nurses and physicians pertaining to euthanasia who are working at Internal Medicine, Surgery and Intensive Care Unit departments at Baskent University Ankara hospital.
Methods: The research is a descriptive one. The sample consisted of 154 nurses and physicians who are working at Internal Medicine, Surgery and Intensive Care Unit departments at Baskent University Ankara hospital and accepted to participate and could be reached. A questionnaire with 30 items was used to collect data to obtain the socio-demographic characteristics and the opinions pertaining to euthanasia of nurses and physicians. Frequencies, mean values and chi-square tests were used in statistical analysis.
Results: The participants didn’t approve euthanasia with a high ratio however it was determined that almost half of them asserted it as patient’s rights of a patient who want his/her death to be fastened and who has no chance to be cured and who are spending the last days of their life with unbearable pain. Except the age groups and marital status there was no significant difference found statistically between the opinions of physicians and nurses regarding euthanasia (p>0.05).
Conclusion: It was stated that nurses and physicians consider not active euthanasia but passive euthanasia as acceptable.

License

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

J Clin Exp Invest, 2010, Volume 1, Issue 2, 91-98

https://doi.org/10.5799/ahinjs.01.2010.02.0019

Publication date: 18 Aug 2010

Article Views: 2394

Article Downloads: 971

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