Highlights
- •Death competence could predict novice oncology nurses' professional quality of life.
- •Cultural-sensitive interventions are needed to improve these nurses' death competence.
- •Copying style and supportive environment are vital to enhance their professional quality of life.
Abstract
Purpose
Novice nurses find it challenging to cope with patient dying and death, especially
in a death taboo cultural context, such as mainland China. By taking the example of
Chinese novice oncology nurses, this study aimed to explore the contribution of their
perceived death competence in determining their professional quality of life.
Method
A multicentre, cross-sectional study was conducted in six tertiary cancer hospitals
in mainland China involving 506 novice oncology nurses. Measurements were the Coping
with Death Scale-Chinese version, the Professional Quality of Life Questionnaire,
and the Coping Style Questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were
used to analyse the data.
Results
Death competence was significantly associated with compassion satisfaction (r = 0.509, P < 0.001), burnout (r = −0.441, P < 0.001) and secondary traumatic stress (r = −0.154, P < 0.001) which are the three dimensions of professional quality of life. The results
of hierarchical multiple regression analyses demonstrated that death competence positively
predicted compassion satisfaction and negatively predicted burnout (P < 0.01), but had no significant impact on secondary traumatic stress after coping
style was entered into the model (P > 0.05).
Conclusions
Novice oncology nurses who perceive themselves to be incompetent in dealing with patient
dying and death are more likely to experience poor professional quality of life in
the death taboo cultural context. Cultural-sensitive interventions and a supportive
work environment are important to enhance these nurses’ death competence, increasing
their professional quality of life and ultimately contributing to better end-of-life
cancer care management.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 23, 2023
Accepted:
January 22,
2023
Received in revised form:
January 4,
2023
Received:
October 25,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
