Introduction: During their studies, nursing students often come across stresful situations, among which we can place dying and death. Although dying is a natural and inevitable part of life, people often respond to it with fear and anxiety. That means that the first encounter with death or dying can be emotionally extremely traumatic for students, it can cause, doubts and distress. That is why proper emotional and mental support from professors and clinical mentors is essential. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to find out how nursing students experience dying and death on clinical practice, how death affects them, how they deal with dying and death, how much experience they have, who helps them with coping and the quality of education concerning dying and death. Methods: There was used a descriptive method with an overview and analysis of technical and scientific literature between the years 1994 and 2016. Results: We analysed 20 relevant articles that dealt with views on death and dying and coping with it among nursing students and education about dying and death in faculties of health sciences. We have found out that coping with dying and death is stressful for students and can lead into anxiety. For quality treatment of a dying pacient it is necessary to educate students well, so they can cope with emotionally stressful situations and can holistically take care of a dying pacient. Discussion and conclusion: The key to quality treatment is education of nursing students and it is only possible if future nurses are suitably educated. Incorrect education of nursing students about emotionally difficult situations can lead into anxiety. With continuous support through supervision we could reduce negative effects on students.
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