BACKGROUND: There are few studies on death education models for nursing students in China. It is of great significance to construct a model of nursing students\' death education combined with clinical practice. This study aims to evaluate the effect of death education on nursing students based on the Peace of Mind Tea House.
METHODS: The randomized controlled trial commenced from February 7 to March 18, 2021,featuring a two-month intercession at a hospital situated in Xiamen, China. The research subjects were chosen using a convenient sampling approach with nursing students from the hospital\'s internship program. Ninety-two participants were enrolled, with 46 in each group. Thirteen participants were lost to follow-up, corresponding to 14% of the total study population. The samples were then allocated randomly into either the intervention group or the control group. In addition to their hospital internship, the intervention group participated in six death education courses that focused on cognitive, emotional, and motor skills as well as the \"Peace of Mind Tea House\" program. Control participants will undergo regular internships. Before and two weeks after the course, both groups were evaluated for death anxiety, attitude towards death, and the meaning of life to assess the intervention\'s effectiveness.
RESULTS: In the fear of death item of the Death Attitude Scale and the meaning of life section, the post-test score minus the pre-test score of the intervention group were 2.50 ± 3.90 (p = 0.011), and 8.90 ± 11.07 (p = 0.035), respectively. During the communication and sharing session of the reassurance card activity, 41 participants (95.3%) found the activity meaningful.
CONCLUSIONS: Our data analysis demonstrates that nursing students have accepted and acknowledged the Peace of Mind Tea House-based education on death, which positively impacted their attitudes towards deathand the meaning of life. The content of death education should be integrated with traditional culture, and a new model of death education should be constructed with the Heart to Heart cards as its core. This research presents proof of the efficacy of implementing appropriate death education for nursing students, and provides a successful intervention plan to alleviate their future death anxiety and develop a positive outlook on death.
BACKGROUND: This study was approved by the Ethical Committee of Xiamen University School of Medicine (No. XDYX202304K21)(Date:18/01/2021). Written consent to participate was obtained from all the students.

Physicians-in-training feel uncomfortable coping with the grief they experience while delivering end-of-life care, and medical schools offer minimal formal curricular offerings on end of life care. Few studies have identified what experiences medical students have with death while training or what lessons they are being taught by more senior physicians at bedside. This qualitative study conducted semi-structured interviews prior to and six months into the medical school clinical year. Our goal was to identify when students were encountering seriously ill/dying patients and what informal education students received about caring for dying patients. Descriptive statistics showed the majority of the encounters the students had with seriously ill or dying patients were in the hospital-based medicine setting. A minority of students participated in debriefs about end-of-life care with their care teams after the events. Thematic analysis showed significant heterogeneity in students\' exposure and responses to patient deaths.

BACKGROUND: The global aging population presents challenges that are particularly acute in China. Older Chinese adults\' attitudes towards death significantly impact their quality of life. Death education is crucial for promoting positive perspectives on life and death. Narrative education offers a promising approach to facilitating death education. Integrating the Knowledge-Attitude-Practice (KAP) model into death education will enhance the feasibility and acceptability of death education programs.
METHODS: This mixed-methods feasibility study included a quasi-experimental trial and semi-structured interviews. Older adults in the intervention group (N = 27) received a 6-week KAP-based narrative life education program in addition to standard community health education; participants in the control group (N = 20) received only the normal community health education. In both groups, attitudes toward death and the meaning of life were assessed at baseline and immediately after the intervention. A post-intervention semi-structured interview and satisfaction survey were also conducted for the intervention group.
RESULTS: Forty out of 47 older adults completed the program for an 85.1% retention rate. All of the older adults in the experiment were very satisfied and satisfied with the life education program, and no adverse events were reported. Compared to the control group, participants in the intervention group had a significant decrease in the fear of death (P = 0.028), and substantial improvement in their value of life (P = 0.031), goal of life (P = 0.035), freedom of life (P = 0.003), and the total score for purpose in life (P = 0.017). The qualitative results yielded four themes: profound recognition of life and death, contradiction between thoughts and action, conflict between one\'s acceptance and others\' avoidance, and evaluation of the life education program.
CONCLUSIONS: The KAP-based narrative life education program is feasible and acceptable for older Chinese community-dwelling adults. It is also potentially effective in improving attitudes toward death attitudes and the meaning of life in this cohort.
BACKGROUND: This study was retrospectively registered at China Clinical Trial Registry as ChiCTR2300069551 on 2023-03-20. URL of registration: https://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.html?proj=183176 .

This article is a contribution to recording one dimension of the field of death, dying, and bereavement. It offers some personal reflections on the history and current status of formal education in this field at the college and university level in North America. The scope of this reflection looks back on the earliest known examples of formal education in this field that took place in the 1960s and 1970s, provides examples of some of the early pedagogical resources that were created to support and foster those initiatives, and sketches more recent developments as regards introductory or undergraduate survey courses in this field, other death-related courses, programs in thanatology, and efforts to offer certificates or certification for educators and other professionals in this field. The article concludes with some thoughts about what we have learned from and about education in the field of death, dying, and bereavement.

To summarize factors influencing death attitudes of medical students, help identify intervention targets, and design precision interventions for improving death attitudes of medical students.
Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, OVID, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang databases were searched. Retrieval time was from January 2012 to September 2023. Studies on factors influencing death attitudes of medical students were included.
Thirty-five studies were included in the final review. A total of 28 factors influencing death attitudes of medical students were summarized and divided into three categories comprising personal factors, social factors, and psychological factors. More than 15 studies confirmed that gender, religion, and discussing death with families were factors that influenced medical students\' death attitudes.
Results indicate that there are many types of factors that influence death attitudes of medical students. It is necessary for universities to implement death education based individual characteristics and guide medical students to cultivate generally optimistic death attitudes and appropriate life values.

This study aims to explore the factors influencing Chinese parents\' attitudes toward death education. Given the current lack of such education in China, this research is particularly significant. Death education is vital for shaping the values of young people and alleviating mental health issues, such as depression and suicidal tendencies. By identifying these influencing factors, this study seeks to provide guidance for policymakers and educators in promoting the development and widespread adoption of death education.
To do so, a national cross-sectional quota sample of 12,435 Chinese parents was used. Borrowing from social-ecological theory, the researchers carried out multiple stepwise regression analyses to examine the individual, family, and social-level factors that shape the supportive attitudes of Chinese parents toward death education.
The findings revealed that at the individual level, parent (β = 0.04, p < 0.001), education level (β = 0.07, p < 0.001), and religious belief (β = -0.02, p < 0.05) were significant predictors of Chinese parents\' support for death education. Meanwhile, at the family and social level, average monthly household income (β = 0.07, p < 0.001), family health (β = 0.03, p < 0.05), family communication (β = 0.02, p < 0.05), social support (β = 0.15, p < 0.001), neighborhood relations (β = 0.11, p < 0.001), and social network size (β = 0.05, p < 0.001) were significant predictors of Chinese parents\' supportive attitudes toward death education.
Based on these findings, it is suggested that the relevant development, planning, publicity, and public welfare groups and government departments should promote death education, provide more social support, and encourage neighborhood harmony. As higher education and average monthly household income were found to significantly impact the support, the government should improve access to higher education and actively work to increase residents\' income to facilitate the development of death education.

This quasi-experimental study investigated the impact of traditional Chinese culture-based life-and-death education on 38 ICU nurses. Participants underwent 14 hours of training, and data were collected before and after the intervention using various questionnaires. Frequency and percentage were used for categorical data; mean and standard deviation for measurement data; and paired-sample t test for comparison of teaching effects before and after the intervention of life-and-death education programs. Results indicated significant improvements in understanding of death, reduced death anxiety, enhanced death coping abilities, and increased search for meaning (p < .05). However, there was no statistically significant change in attitude toward death (p > .05). Life-and-death education rooted in traditional Chinese culture positively influenced ICU nurses, fostering improved death cognition, reduced death anxiety, enhanced coping skills, and a heightened sense of meaning in life. Subsequent research will explore the relationship and distinctions between explicit and implicit death attitudes.

OBJECTIVE: To identify whether hospice workers hold unique and theoretically-informative perspectives about death, especially as they relate to terror management processes.
METHODS: Twelve hospice workers from two hospices in Tucson, Arizona, United States, participated in semi-structured interviews. Interview and analytic practices were guided by Grounded Theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967).
RESULTS: Three categories were identified in relation to death attitudes: effects of chronic confrontation with death; reasons for working in hospice; and perceptions of death in others.
CONCLUSIONS: Two theoretically informative trends appeared. First, hospice workers largely manage death anxiety as identified by existing literature with the notable exception that hospice workers overall seem to integrate death and dying into their worldviews as a meaningful category, as opposed to avoiding thinking about death. Second, even among those regularly exposed to death, there seems to be a range across participants on a continuum from avoiding to confronting the topic of death.

Death education has been confirmed to be an effective method to enhance nursing students\' attitudes and coping abilities toward death. However, integrated Narrative Pedagogy into the death education to explore educational effectiveness is still limited. The study aimed to evaluate the effects of a death education based on Narrative Pedagogy in a palliative care course on the attitude toward death, coping with death, and attitude toward caring for the dying among undergraduate nursing students in China.
The study was designed as a pre-post intervention study with a quasi-experimental design. All the participants received 6 class hours of death education which was designed in a palliative care course. The death education includes preparation, presentation, discussion, reflection, and practice of the narrative materials. Death Attitude Profile-Revised (DAP-R), Coping with Death Scale (CDS), and Frommelt Attitude Toward Care of the Dying-Form B (FATCOD-Form B) were used to measure outcomes.
Sixty undergraduate nursing students who consented. There were statistically significant increases in the mean score of neutral acceptance and approach acceptance in the DAP-R, CDS, and FATCOD-Form B before and after the intervention.
This death education integrated Narrative Pedagogy which indicated to improve attitude toward death, competence to cope with death, and attitude toward the care of dying patients. The findings assist teachers in understanding the importance and urgency of death education, as well as providing a favorable approach to death education. However, the long-term effectiveness still needs to study in further.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of the constructed OOIDE intervention in patients with advanced cancer.
METHODS: In this study, patients were invited to participate in a 4-week OOIDE intervention. The assessment of patients\' ability to cope with death was conducted using a scale in conjunction with interviews. Additionally, patients\' \'readiness to die\' was assessed.
RESULTS: Thirty-two patients with advanced cancer participated in this study. Our intervention significantly enhanced their perspective on life and spirituality, while also reducing their fear of death (P < 0.01). Furthermore, it facilitated their acceptance of death, encouraged a more rational approach to their illness, and fostered an understanding of hospice care, thereby reinforcing their sense of self-worth. Additionally, the intervention improved the relationship between the patient and their families, fostering greater mutual understanding and respect for the patient\'s perspectives. Comparing the results to the pre-intervention period, there was a significant increase in the number of patients who discussed death with their families and contemplated the place of their passing (P < 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: OOIDE improves participants\' ability to confront death, while also assisting patients\' families in the physical and psychological preparations for the loss of their relative.