The purpose of this study was to develop an online education on death, ‘successful life, and beautiful death’ for university students and to evaluate students' changes regarding perception of self and death.

A quasi-experimental design was used with one experimental group pre-post test. Subjects were 154 students who enrolled for online education about death for 16 weeks. SPSS/WIN 12 was used for analyzing data.

The results of the study clearly indicated this class had positive effects on students' perception of death-related concepts, attitudes toward death, and self-concept, showing statistically significant higher scores in post-tests than in pre-tests. In addition, the result of class evaluations showed a positive response,

Findings suggested that this online education about death was effective to change students' perceptions of death related knowledge, attitude toward death, and self-concept. Recommendations for further studies were provided.

The purpose of this study was to analyze death attitudes of students majoring in the human service area, such as nursing science, education, and social welfare.

The Q-methodology which provides a method of analyzing the subjectivity of each item was used. The 38 selected Q-statements from each of 42 subjects were classified into a shape of normal distribution using a 9 point scale. The collected data was analyzed using a QUANL PC program.

Four types of death attitudes for research subjects in nursing, education, and social welfare areas were identified. Type I is fatalistic admission, Type II is pursuit of existential life, Type III is uncertainty of life after death, and Type IV is separation-connection between life and death.

The results of the study indicate that different approaches of death educational programs are recommended based on the four types of death attitudes.

This study aims to develop a self-reflection program for nurses who have experienced the death of pediatric patients in the intensive care unit and to evaluate its effectiveness.

The self-reflection program was developed by means of the following four steps: establishment of the goal through investigation of an initial request, drawing up the program, preliminary research, and implementation and improvement of the program. The study employed a methodological triangulation to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Participants were 38 nurses who had experienced the death of pediatric patients (experimental group=15, control group=23); they were recruited using convenience sampling. The self-reflection program was provided over 6 weeks (6 sessions). Data were collected from April to August, 2014 and analyzed using t-tests and content analysis.

The quantitative results showed that changes in personal growth (t=-6.33, p<.001) and burnout scores (z=-2.76, p=.005) were better in the experimental group compared to the control group. The qualitative results exhibited two themes, namely “personal growth” and “professional growth”, and ten sub-themes.

The self-reflection program developed by this study was effective in helping nurses who had experienced the death of pediatric patients to achieve personal growth through self-reflection, and it was confirmed that the program can be applied in a realistic clinical nursing setting. Furthermore, it can be recommended as an intervention program for clinical nurses.

The purpose of this study was to identify and understand nurses' experiences of the death of patients in geriatric hospitals.

Van Manen's hermeneutic phenomenological analysis was applied in the interpretation of experiential descriptions of seven nurses who had experienced the death of patients in a geriatric hospital.

The essential subjects derived from the experience of the nurses on the death of patients in a geriatric hospital are covered in the following 7 themes. 'Placed in death site', 'Difficult repetition of death and farewell', 'Emotional waves that rushes in after farewell', 'Dilemmas in a place with no preparation to greet expected death', 'Getting dull from continually being struck with sorrow', 'Being together with living death', and 'Showing courtesy for a good farewell and living well'.

The results of this research will contribute to the development of policy on all the deaths of patients in geriatric hospitals and suggest basic data that need to be applied in real practice and directions to introduce plans for realistic improvements in nursing care of deathbed patients in geriatric hospitals.

This study was conducted in order to examine the effects of death anxiety and meaning of life on somatization of grandparents raising grandchildren.

A convenience sample of 92 elderly grandparents raising grandchildren was recruited. The study instrument for death anxiety was the 5-point 15 items scale designed by Templer and translated by Ko, Choi, & Lee and for meaning of life, the 7-point 10-items scale by Steger, Frazier, Oishi & Kaler and translated by Won, Kim & Kwon. For somatization, the 5-point 12 items scale designed by Derogatis and translated by Kim, Kim & Won was used. Collected data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson Correlation and regression using the SPSS 21.0 program.

Average scores were 3.55 for death anxiety, 3.43 for meaning of life, and 2.74 for somatization. Death anxiety had the highest positive correlation with somatization. Meaning of life was negatively correlated with death anxiety and somatization. Death anxiety and health status were shown to influence somatization but meaning of life was not shown to influence somatization.

The research results indicate that death anxiety and health status influence somatization in grandparents raising grandchildren. These results also provide basic information on the importance of nursing interventions in which the variables influencing somatization in grandparents raising grandchildren are considered.

The purposes of this study were to explore the effects of family cohesion and subjective happiness on death anxiety of Korean elders and to identify other factors contributing to death anxiety.

The participants were 280 elders who lived in P metropolitan city. Data were collected between November 5, 2011 and January 12, 2012 using the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (SPMSQ), Family Cohesion Evaluation Scale, Subjective Happiness Scale, and Fear of Death Scale (FODS). Data were analyzed using the SPSS/WIN 19.0 program.

Family cohesion, marital status, religious activity, perceived health status, and subjective happiness were included in the factors affecting death anxiety of Korean elders. These variables explained 50.1% of death anxiety.

The results of the study indicate that these variables should be considered in developing nursing intervention programs to decrease death anxiety and increase family cohesion and subjective happiness for life integration in Korean elders.

The study was done to develop a dignified dying scale for Korean adults.

The process included construction of a conceptual framework, generation of initial items, verification of content validity, selection of secondary items, preliminary study, and extraction of final items. The participants were 428 adults who lived in one of 3 Korean metropolitan cities: Seoul, Daegu, and Busan. Item analysis, factor analysis, criterion related validity, and internal consistency were used to analyze the data. Data collection was done from March to June 2010.

Thirty items were selected for the final scale, and categorized into 5 factors explaining 54.5% of the total variance. The factors were labeled as maintaining emotional comfort (10 items), arranging social relationship (9 items), avoiding suffering (3 items), maintaining autonomous decision making (4 items), and role preservation (4 items). The scores for the scale were significantly correlated with personal meanings of death scale. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the 30 items was .92.

The above findings indicate that the dignified dying scale has a good validity and reliability when used with Korean adults.

The purpose of this experimental study was to examine the values of a death education program developed to improve life satisfaction and attitude toward death in college students.

The death education program was developed and then used with 22 college students for 5 weeks, once a week for 150 min. Before and after the intervention, students responded a questionnaire developed to measure life satisfaction and attitude toward death. t-test, χ²-test, and paired t-test with the SPSS program were used to analyze the data.

The death education program significantly improved life satisfaction but had no statistically significant effect on attitude toward death. There was a significant difference in life satisfaction between the experimental and control groups but not in attitude toward death.

Based on the above results, it is apparent that the death education program has an affirmative effect on life satisfaction in college students and some impact on attitude toward death. We suggest, therefore, that the death education program should be used with all human beings to help them recognize the values of themselves and their current lives and improve their satisfaction with life.

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship among self-efficacy, depression, life satisfaction and death attitude of college students.

The subjects consisted of 232 college students. Data were collected by self-reported questionnaires, which were constructed to include self-efficacy, depression, satisfaction with life, and death attitude. Data were analyzed by the SPSS/PC WIN. 12.0 program.

Death attitude and life satisfaction of college students were significantly different according to frequency of death ideation. Death attitude for college students correlated with self-efficacy, depression, and life atisfaction. The most significant predictor of death attitude for college students was life satisfaction.

The above findings indicate that death attitude for college students is influenced by self-efficacy, depression, and life satisfaction. These findings suggest that a death education program to improve life satisfaction and to give a positive attitude toward death is needed for college students.

The purpose of this study was to develop an evaluation instrument integrated and interdisciplinary death education for the human service areas such as nursing, social welfare, and education and to test the reliability and validity of it.

The subjects used to verify the instrument's reliability and validity were 407 students who were enrolled in the departments of nursing, social welfare, and education in universities located in Seoul, Pusan, Daegu, and Daejeon. The data was collected from April to May, 2005, and was analyzed by SPSS/WIN 12.

A factor analysis was conducted. Items with over a .40 factor loading and over a 1.0 eigen value were selected. Nine identified factors were learning about death, role of professionals, personal attitudes, hospice care, ethics and legal issues, death and dying, spiritual aspect of death, transcultural aspect of death, and multidisciplinary theory of death. The instrument consisted of 44 items and the reliability was a cronbach's of .953

Based on the study results, the content scale developed in this study was identified as a tool with a high degree of reliability and validity.