J Nurs Acad Soc.  1992 Mar;22(1):68-80.

A Study on the Death Orientation of Hospice Volunteers

• Park SC

Abstract

In order to provide data basic to the training of hospice volunteers, this study was carried out to investigate the personal attributes and the Death Orientation of hospice volunteers. 80 hospice volunteers were sampled from those registered on Seoul Catholic Social Service and Korean Association for Volunteers Effort conveniently. Data were gathered from August 16th to October 3rd, 1991. The instrument used for this study was the Death Orientation Questionnaire developed by Thorson and Powell, subjective age and religiosity questionnaire developed by Bell and Betterson, and subjective health criteria developed by Baumann. Data were analyzed using frequency, mean standard deviation, Chi-square, and t-test by SPSS-program. Result of this study are summarized as follows ; 1. The majority of hospice volunteers perceived younger in their subjective age than their chronological age(65%), perceived themselves to be healthy subjectively(88.8%), and revealed to have high religiosity score(96.3%) 2. Level of Death Orientation of hospice volunteers was revealed to be moderate. (Mn=2.06, SD=0.40, range, 1.45-3.53) Among 25 Death Orientation items, respondents revealed the highest concern over the afterlife (Mn=3.53, SD=0.71), revealed the lowest anxiety about not knowing the next world after his or her death(Mn=1.45, SD=0.69), and relatively high concern over leaving careful instructions after death(Mn=2.97, SD=0.83). Respondents revealed low Death Orientation score(below 1.99) to 12 negative items(2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22). Thus hospice volunteers seem to be preparing for their own death and shown show positive Death Orientation to some items relatively. 3. According to personal attributes(demographic, socioeconomic, and relevant variables) of hospice volunteers, there were no significant statistic differences of Death Orientation score. Thus pre-exciting Death Orientation of hospice volunteers and their motive of participation to the hospice service are to be considered important variables influencing the Death Orientation.

MeSH Terms

Anxiety
Hospices*
Humans
Surveys and Questionnaires
Seoul
Social Work
Surveys and Questionnaires
Volunteers*