Perspectives of Death and Dying /HS 1002

Death Encounter Learning Activity

Student’s Name_________________________________ Date: __________________

Some individuals find it extremely difficult to cope with their own feelings when they have to care for dying
patients. Assuming you were assigned to care for the following kinds of dying patients today, and assuming
that their prognosis and symptoms were comparable, how would you feel?

Your Feelings
Dying Patients Would not mind Somewhat Very Unable to Cope
Uncomfortable Uncomfortable
1. A newborn infant
2. A young child
3. An adolescent
4. A mother with young children
at home
5. A father with young family
6. A middle-aged person
7. An elderly person
8. A very old person

9. Would you assist in an abortion procedure in the hospital setting? _____a. YES _____ b. NO

10. In your opinion, does a fetus have any rights-morally, legally, or otherwise?
_____a. Yes, from the moment of conception
_____b. Yes, from the time it might become viable outside the womb
_____c. No, such rights begin at birth

11. When should a patient with a terminal illness be told that he is dying?
_____a. As soon as possible after the diagnosis is certain
_____b. The news should be broken to the patient slowly over an extended period of time as the illness
progresses.
_____c. A patient should be told only when in the last stages of dying and health is imminent.
_____d. A patient should never be told that he is dying. Tell him that he only has a serious illness.
_____e. Only when he asks.

12. If a patient who has a terminal illness were to bluntly ask you if he is dying, what would you most likely
do?
_____a. Avoid the question, distracting the patient in some way.
_____b. Reassure the patient that he is not dying, just very ill.
_____c. Tell the patient that the question can be answered only by his physician and that you are not in a
position to tell him.
_____d. Ask the patient why he brought up the question. Try to get him to talk about his feelings and sit and
listen to what he has to say.
______e. Say you don’t know.
______f. Tell him the truth…”Yes you are dying”

13. Do you believe hospital should have separate departments with a specially trained staff for the caring of
the terminal ill patients?
______a. Yes ______b. No

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 Perspectives of Death and Dying /HS 1002
Death Encounter Learning Activity
14. If a terminally ill patient does not want any life sustaining efforts in his last stages of dying but his family
insists that everything possible be done to prolong his life, whose desires do you believe should take priority?
______a. The patient’s ______b. The family’s

What are your feelings about the following:

15. Maintaining terminally ill patients by extraordinary means in order to study their disease?
_____a. In favor
_____b. Mixed feelings, slightly in favor
_____c. Mixed feelings, slightly against
_____d. Against

16. Do you believe that if a terminally ill patient is suffering beyond endurance and pleads for an end to his
life, he should be given the means to do so?
_____a. Yes _____b. It depends on the patient and on the circumstances ____c. No

17. What is your predominant feeling about having to care for the body of a patient after death?
___a. Fear ___b. Distaste ___c. Acceptance of necessity of this task ___d. No special feeling

18. Who died in your first personal involvement with death?

_____a. Grandparents or great grand parent
_____b. Parent
_____c. Brother or Sister
_____d. Other family member
_____e. Friend or acquaintances
_____f. Stranger
_____g. Public figure
_____h. Animal/Pet
_____i. Idol/Artist

19. What aspect of your own death is most distasteful to you?

_____a. I could no longer have any experiences.
_____b. I am afraid of what might happen to my body after death.
_____c. I am uncertain as to what might happen to me if there is a life after death.
_____d. I could no longer provide fro my family.
_____e. It would cause grief for my significant others.
_____f. All my plans and project would come to an end.
_____g. The process of dying might be painful.
_____h. Something other than the above which is _________________________

20. What does death mean to you?

_____a. Reincarnation
_____b. Being with God
_____c. An ending to earthly life with the continued individual existence of the soul
_____d. A joining of the soul with a universal consciousness.
_____e. A kind of endless sleep.
_____f. The end of all experiences, a total and irreversible blotting of our existence.
_____g. Something other than the above which is __________________________

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