Exploring the needs and barriers for death education in China: Getting answers from heart transplant recipients' inner experience of death
Wan Shu, QunFang Miao, JieHui Feng, GuanMian Liang, Jing Zhang, Jinsheng Zhang
Frontiers in Public Health February 13, 2023 DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1082979 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 11 |
| Population | Heart transplant recipients who had undergone transplantation more than one year earlier |
| Topics | Near-death experience |
| Keywords | Heart transplantation Death attitude Death education Qualitative research |
| Key findings | Heart transplant recipients are described as having a positive attitude toward death and a wish for a "good death" at the end of life. Five themes were identified, including not avoiding talk about death, fear of pain during dying, surprising richness of near-death feelings, and greater receptivity to death from closeness to it. The authors argue these experiences support the need for death education in China and an experiential approach to it. |
Abstract
BackgroundPromoting reflection about death may support better living, and how to carry out death education is an important issue to be addressed across the world. The purpose of the current study was to explore the attitude of heart transplant recipients toward death and their inner real experience to provide information for the development of death education strategies.MethodsA phenomenological qualitative study was conducted using a snowball method. A total of 11 patients who had undergone heart transplantation more than 1-year ago were recruited for the current study for semi-structured interviews.ResultsA total of five themes were identified: “Not avoid talking about death,” “Feeling fear about the pain in the process of death”, “Wanting a good death at the end of life,” “The richness of feelings during near-death is surprising,” and “Being close to death makes people more receptive to death.”ConclusionHeart transplant recipients have a positive attitude toward death and wish for “good death” at the end of life. These patients' near-death experiences and positive attitudes toward death during the course of their illness provided evidence of the need for death education in China and supported the experiential approach to death education.