Attitudes of Polish-speaking and English-speaking medical students towards death during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Introduction and purposeLast year, since the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, medical students have faced new challenges, related to growing numbers of people who are and will be hospitalized as well as deaths among patients in healthcare facilities. The purpose of this study, is analysis and comparison of attitudes of Polish-speaking and English-speaking students towards death, during the COVID-19 pandemic.Material and methodThe study was conducted in an electronic form on a group of Polish and foreign exchange students of medical faculties. In total, 277 people aged 19 to 38, including 141 of Polish nationality and 136 of non-Polish nationality, participated in the study. The study used a sociodemographic questionnaire and the Death Attitude Profile (DAP-R-PL). The questionnaire consists of 5 aspects, that relate to different attitudes towards death: fear of death, death avoidance, neutral acceptance, approach acceptance and escape acceptance.ResultsThe most common attitude represented in both groups was neutral acceptance of death. Polish students obtained higher results in scales fear of death and escape acceptance compared to foreing students. The results showed, that the strongest corelation occurs between escape acceptance and fear of death.ConclusionsIn most cases, adaptative beliefs towards death shown by both groups of respondents indicates, that they will handle working with dying patients. However, higher degree of fear of death and escape acceptance amongst Polish students indicates the need to introduce thanatology education into course of studies.