"BALANCING LIFE AND DEATH: UNRAVELING THE IMPACT OF WORK ENVIRONMENT ON DEATH ANXIETY, RESILIENCE, AND SPIRITUAL WELLBEING AMONG HEALTH PROFESSIONALS IN INTENSIVE CARE AND NON-INTENSIVE CARE UNITS"
Main Article Content
Abstract
The current study aimed to investigate the impact of work environment on healthcare professionals, particularly in intensive care and non-intensive care settings. The emotional experiences of health professionals were explored through the assessment of death anxiety, resilience, and spiritual wellbeing. Data was collected from a total of 160 healthcare professionals, including both doctors and nurses. This sample was divided into two groups: the intensive care group (n=70) and the non-intensive care group (n=90). To measure the variables, translated Urdu versions of the Death Anxiety Scale (Templer, 1970), State Trait Resilience Scale (Hiew, 1999), and Spiritual Wellness Scale (Ingersoll, 1998) were used. The collected data were then analyzed using independent sample t-tests. The results indicated significant differences between the two groups in terms of death anxiety, resilience, and spiritual wellbeing. Therefore, it was concluded that the work environment, whether in intensive care or non-intensive care, has differing effects on the emotional experiences of healthcare professionals. Furthermore, a correlational test was employed to examine the relationship between work experience and the research variables. The findings revealed a negative correlation between work experience and death anxiety (r = -.63, p< .01), suggesting that as work experience increases, death anxiety tends to decrease. On the other hand, a positive correlation was found between total work experience, resilience (r=.53, p< .01), and spiritual wellbeing (r = .43, p< .01), indicating that with more work experience, resilience and spiritual wellbeing tend to improve. Overall, the results also indicated a negative correlation between death anxiety and both resilience and spiritual wellbeing. In conclusion, the study highlights the importance of considering work environment and experience in understanding the emotional well-being of healthcare professionals, particularly in intensive care and non-intensive care settings.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
References
Abdel-Khalek A. M. (1998). Death anxiety before and after the Iraqi aggression: A study on Kuwaiti undergraduates. The Arabic Journal of Humanities, Kuwait University. 64(8)52 -271.
Al-Osaimi, D. N., Al-Onazi, A. K., Al-Khammash, N. M. S., Al-Shakarah, N. F., Al-Rashidi, M. K., & Al-Shamry, H. M. (2023). Spiritual Well-being and Burnout among Saudi Nurses in Intensive Care Units. The Open Nursing Journal. 17. DOI: 10.2174/18744346-v17-2305300-2022-16
Ankita, B., & Punam, M. (2017). Buffering Power of Spirituality against Death Anxiety. International Journal of Indian Psychology, 4(2). DOI: 10.25215/0402.146
Ardelt, M. (2003). Effects of religion and purpose in life on elders’ subjective well-being and attitudes toward death. Journal of Religious Gerontology, 14(4), 55-77.
Cao X., Yang C., Wang D. (2020). The impact on mental health of losing an only child and the influence of social support and resilience. Omega Journal of Death and Dying. 80, 666–684.
Charlotte D. Shelton, Sascha Hein, & Kelly A. Phipps. (2019). Spirituality, leader resiliency, and life satisfaction: A study on connections. Journal of Happiness and Well-Being, 45(1), 33-48.
Cicirelli, V. G. (2006). Fear of death in mid-old age. International Journal of Aging & Human Development, 62(4), 335-348.
Deffner, J. M., & Bell, S. K. (2005). Nurses’ death anxiety, comfort level during communication with patients and families regarding death, and exposure to communication education: A quantitative study. Journal for Nurses in Staff Development, 21(1), 19–23.
George Williams. (2017). Correctional staff spirituality and resilience: A correlational study. Journal of Correctional Psychology, 32(2), 87-98.
Gohar, M. (2005). Development of an indigenous Spiritual wellness inventory for Pakistani youth. (Unpublished M.Phil dissertation). National Institute of Psychology, Quaid-e Azam University, Islamabad.
Gomez, R., & Fisher, J. W. (2003). Domains of spiritual well-being and development and validation of the Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire. Personality and Individual Differences, 35(8), 1975-1991.
Hatami, S., & Shekarchizadeh, H. (2022). Relationship between spiritual health, resilience, and happiness among a group of dental students: A cross-sectional study with structural equation modeling method. BMC Medical Education, 22(1), 184. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-022-03529-1
Hiew, C. C. (1999). Development of the State-Trait Resilience Scale. Developmental Psychology Conference, Tokyo, Japan
Hoelterhoff, M., & Chung, M. C. (2017). The impact of self-efficacy and spirituality on mental health and quality of life among older adults. Aging & Mental Health, 21(2), 160-168.
Howard, A.H., Roberts, M., Mitchell, T., & Wilke, N.G.(2023). The Relationship Between Spirituality and Resilience and Well-being: a Study of 529 Care Leavers from 11 Nations. Advers Resil Sci. 4(2):177-190
Ingersoll, R. E. (1998). Refining dimension of spiritual wellness: A cross-traditional approach. Counseling and Values, 42(3), 156-165.
Jenkins, J. (2000). Spirituality and meaning in supportive care: spirituality- and meaning centered group psychotherapy interventions in advanced cancer. Supportive Care in Cancer, 10(4), 272-280.
Khezri, L., Bahreyni, M., Ravanipour, M., & Mirzaee, K. (2015). Relationship between spiritual well-being and death anxiety in patients with myocardial infarction. Journal of Religion and Health, 54(5), 1763-1772.
Mallett, K., Price, J. H., Jurs, S. G., & Slenker, S. Relationships among burnout, death anxiety, and social support in hospice and critical care nurses. (1991). Psychological Reports. 68(3),1347-59. doi: 10.2466/pr0.1991.68.3c.1347.
Manning, L. (2013). Navigating hardship in older age: Exploring the relationship between spirituality and resilience in later life. Qualitative Health Research, 23(4), 568-575.
Mealer, M., Jones, J., & Moss, M. (2014). A qualitative study of resilience and post traumatic stress disorder in United States ICU nurses. Intensive Care Medicine, 38(9), 1445-1451
North American Nursing Diagnosis Association International. (2007). Nursing diagnoses: Definitions & classification, (1st ed.). Oxford, UK: Author.
Newman, R. (2005). APA’s resilience initiative. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 36(3), 227–229.
Peters, L., Cant, R., Payne, S., O’Connor, M., McDermott, F., Hood, k., Morphet, J., & Shimoinaba, K. (2013). How death anxiety impacts nurses' caring for patients at the end of life: a review of literature. Open Nursing Journal, 7, 14-21
Rababa, M., Hayajneh, F., & Bani-Iss, Y. (2020). Correlation between death anxiety, spiritual well-being, and religious coping among older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Aging and Mental Health, 28(6), 1031-1041.
Rayatpisheh, Fatemeh & Torabizadeh, Camellia & Najafi Kalyani, Majid & Farsi, Zahra. (2023). Relationship between resilience and death anxiety of the older adults during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. BMC Geriatrics. 23(1) DOI:10.1186/s12877-023-04086-8
Roman, P. S., Sorribes, E. M., & Ezquerro, M. D. (2001). Attitudes towards death and dying in older and young nurses. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 38(2), 181-192.
Rasmussen, C. H., & Johnson, M. E. (1994). Spirituality and religiosity: Relative relationship to death anxiety. Omega: Journal of Death & Dying, 29(4), 313-318. doi: 10.2190/D1M9- 3W6J-FY33-G3HQ
Sadala, M. L., & da Silva, F. M. (2009). Taking care of terminal patients: nursing students’ perspective. Rev Esc Enferm USP, 43(2), 287-94
Sarwar, N. (2005). Translation of the State Trait Resilience Inventory (STRI) into Urdu. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 36(4), 439-454.
Smith, S. (2004). Exploring the interaction of emotional Intelligence and spirituality. Traumatology, 10(4), 231–243
Stoller, E.P. (1980). Effect of experience on nurses’ responses to dying and death in the hospital setting. Nursing Research, 29(2), 35–38
Templer, D. I. (1970). The construction and validation of a death anxiety scale. Journal of General Psychology, 82(3), 165–177. doi:10.1080/00221309.1970.9920634.
Thanooja, K., & Seena, V. (2017). Resilience and spirituality as correlates of psychological wellbeing among adolescents. Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing, 8(3), 284-287.
Thies, K. M. (2006). A conceptual analysis of resilience. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 27(3), 307-321
Toledano-Toledano, F., Moral de la Rubia, J., Broche-Pérez, Y., Domínguez-Guedea, M. T., and Granados-García, V. (2019). The measurement scale of resilience among family caregivers of children with cancer: a psychometric evaluation. BMC Public Health 19, 1–4. doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-7512-8