Attitude towards Euthanasia among Nurses in a Tertiary Level Hospital of Biratnagar, Nepal

Abstract

Euthanasia is the intentional ending of a person’s life for their own benefit. Thus, euthanasia means a good death or an easy death. It is recognized as the compassionate acceleration of death, typically restricted to deliberate and compassionate acts to end the life of someone who is terminally ill. It is a major global ethical dilemma in medicine, with divergent perspectives and prolonged debates without clear consensus. Since nurses are the ones who are involved in euthanasia practice. The study aims to find out the level of attitude towards euthanasia among nurses. A cross-sectional study design was used. A non-probability purposive sampling technique was used to select 122 nurses of Koshi Hospital, Biratnagar. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics such as mean, median, frequency, percentage, and standard deviation. Inferential statistics, the chi-square test, were used to show the association between Attitude towards Euthanasia and selected socio-demographic variables. The findings of the study concluded that one-tenth (14.8%) of nurses had a positive attitude, 61.5% of nurses had a neutral attitude, and 23.8% of nurses had a negative attitude towards euthanasia. A significant association was found between the level of euthanasia and age (p=0.000), Qualification (p=0.00), Working Experience (p=0.00), and training (p=0.003). It is concluded that more than one-tenth of nurses had a positive attitude towards euthanasia. These findings emphasize the need for educational programs to provide comprehensive information on this topic.