Nurses’ Opinion About Euthanasia in East Azerbaijan Province, Iran

Abstract

Background: Euthanasia is one of the important challenges in the field of end of life care. There are few studies investigated the attitude of Shiite Muslim nurses about different aspects of euthanasia. Objectives: The aim of present study was to investigate the attitude of Iranian Shiite nurses about different aspects of euthanasia in East Azerbaijan Provence, Iran, 2012. Patients and Methods: In this descriptive study, 209 nurses (census sampling method) from 6 educational hospitals in East Azerbaijan Province were participated. The attitude of nurses was investigated with Euthanasia Attitude Questionnaire, which is a 31-item scale. This scale investigate the attitude of nurses in 5 domains, including general attitude (3 items), legal and religious issues (5 items), end of life care (8 items), euthanasia decision making (8 items), and attitude toward different types of euthanasia (7 items). Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis using SPSS software (ver. 13). Results: Participants had a negative attitude towards all aspects of euthanasia. They reported that they would not participate in euthanasia procedure even this procedure was accepted by religious leaders and legal authorities. They believed that caring of end of life patients is a burden but this is not a reason for euthanasia and also they did not consider patients or their relative as decision makers for euthanasia. In addition, participants rejected all types of euthanasia. Conclusions: Iranian nurses in East Azerbaijan Provence have negative attitudes toward different aspects of euthanasia and this negative attitude is not related to religious or legal issues. So, searching for the reasons for such an attitude needs more investigation.