Vol.:(0123456789) Journal of Religion and Health https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-019-00927-2 1 3 ORIGINAL PAPER Nurses’ Attitudes Towards Death and Their Efects on Spirituality and Spiritual Care Aslı Akdeniz Kudubes 1  · Zülfye Karakaş Akıl 2  · Murat Bektas 1  · İlknur Bektas 1 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract This study aimed to determine the efect of nurses’ attitudes towards death on spir- ituality and spiritual care. This is a descriptive and correlational study. There was a moderate correlation between the total score on the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale and the total and subdimension scores on the Attitude Towards Death Scale. It was found that the scores on the subdimensions of objective accept- ance, escaping/acceptance and fear of death explained 41.7% of nurses’ perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care. For holistic nursing care, it is very important that nurses are aware of their patients’ spiritual needs and are capable of providing sup- portive spiritual service without regard for their own attitudes towards or spiritual thoughts about death. Keywords Death and dying · Nursing · Spirituality Introduction Death is a universal phenomenon shared by all people, but it is afected by culture, belief systems and lifestyles (Aksu and Okçay 2010). People who are dying or close to death make the ones around them have certain feelings. The health care teams of hospital patients, particularly nurses since they build the longest relationship * Aslı Akdeniz Kudubes asliakdeniz@hotmail.com Zülfye Karakaş Akıl emergency84@hotmail.com Murat Bektas mbekta@gmail.com İlknur Bektas ilknurbektas23@gmail.com 1 Faculty of Nursing, Dokuz Eylul University, Inciralti, 35340 Izmir, Turkey 2 Day Chemotherapy Center, Balıkesir State Hospital, Balıkesir, Turkey