| 内容記述2 | Recent developments in medicine have been remarkable. Because of the prolonging of the lives of cancer patients and the aging of society, there are increased opportunities to question again the meaning of a life with diseases and that of a life that faces oncoming death. On the other hand, the lifestyles and values of modern people have diversified, making them experience life and death in various times and places and also think about life and death in different ways. It is said that nursing reflects the values or the way the nurse thinks about life and death, or the nurse's own thanatological aspects. We believe that nursing students, who are in the midst of developing their thanatological aspects, need to 1) recognize that death occurs to everyone without fail;2) seek their own meaning of life; 3) carefully think about their own death. Because of these beliefs, we arranged a survey in order for the students who attended the “Life Ethics” course at our school to think about and face their own life and death, using a question on “life” and a checklist (Kondo 1994) on death. From the results of the survey, we wished to make clear the characteristics of the nursing students' thanatological aspects.
78.4% of the students surveyed showed that they have opportunities to think about “life and death ” on a daily basis, and they regarded their own “life” in an affirmative manner. Although they thought of “death” as the end of life, at the same time they perceived “death”as spirituality that perpetuates. They were aware that the development of their own thanatological aspects was influenced by self-discernment based on such experiences as the loss of their grandparents or relatives who were close to them or struggles against a disease and on information from the media.In addition, the students expressed their wishes to discuss their own “death” with their spouses, family and friends. When they did, however, they held negative perceptions such as fear, anxiety, loneliness, and feeling blue or awkward. Furthermore, the students had negative feelings when a third party brought up the topic of “death” with them, but they also wished to actively listen and talk about it with them. |
