The spiritual needs of the sick, death and suffering in the perception of students

Introduction: Suffering and death are events that in all societies.

Aim of the study: To compare preferred by students spiritual needs of patients and attitudes towards death and suffering.

Material and methods: The study included 100 students of nursing (group I) and education (group II).

Results: Patients expect support in the disease from family. In terms of the preferred forms of assistance to meet the spiritual needs of the students group I mentioned: talk about suffering, sickness and death (45%) and group II – the presence of a nurse (42%). The most common source of suffering was illness and severe pain (80% of group I and 34% of group II), with the best partners to talk about the suffering – a priest (24% – group I, 32% – group II), the most common response of a patient to pain – depression (41% of group I, 52% of the group II). The perception of death changes the death of a loved one (59% of group I, 62% of the group II).

Conclusions: Most nursing students regarded the concept of suffering from negative emotions and students of pedagogy – with unpleasant sensations anguish. Students rarely talked about suffering, and the partner to talk about the suffering would be a priest or parents. The death of a loved one influence the perception of death and the best place to die is home, and at the death of a patient should be accompanied by a family.