Undergraduate Nursing Students Attitudes Toward Physician Assisted Suicide

Abstract

Physician assisted suicide consists of a doctor providing a patient with the lethal means of a medication (usually the barbituate secobarbital) to administer themselves at their own will. Euthanasia is a slightly different form of physician assisted suicide, where the doctor takes an active role and administers the lethal dose of a medication (usually secobarbital) to the patient. As expected, this practice abounds with controversy. This research seeks to study baccalaureate student nurses’ opinions on physician assisted suicide. This research sought to understand if nursing students feel physician assisted suicide is ethical amongst certain situations, and whether or not they believe if it should be legalized in the United States. Using student nurses as the participants in this study seemed best because they most likely have, or will have, treated a critically or terminally ill patient. Nurses work the closest with these specific patients, and therefore their opinions on whether or not physician assisted suicide should be an option is extremely valuable. Survey methodology was used to conduct this research. The survey contained a few demographic questions and two scenarios for the students to state whether they agreed or not, and a space for their thoughts on the matter. Mostly all of the students, by the end of the survey, made it clear that they believe physician assisted suicide can and should be used within certain ethical situations.