Critical Synthesis Package: Thanatophobia Scale

• Päätekijät: Angela Blood (Tekijä), Yoon Soo Park (Tekijä)
• Aineistotyyppi: Kirja
• Julkaistu: Association of American Medical Colleges, 2013-12-01T00:00:00Z.
• Aiheet: article
• Linkit: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 10.15766/mep_2374-8265.9629; 2374-8265
• Keywords: Palliative Care; DREAM; Directory and Repository of Educational Assessment Measures; End of Life Care; Thanatophobia; End of Life; Medicine (General); R5-920; Education; L
• Source: MedEdPORTAL, Vol 9 (2013)

Abstract The Critical Synthesis Package contains: (1) a Critical Analysis of the psychometric properties and application to health sciences education for the Thanatophobia Scale, and (2) a copy of the Thanatophobia Scale developed by Joseph Merrill, MD. The Thanatophobia Scale measures feelings associated with thanatophobia, or fear of death, and its seven items address the individuals' feeling of discomfort in dealing with dying patients. The scale is a seven-point ordinal scale anchored on end by "strongly disagree" and by "strongly agree" on the other. Scores are calculated by summing the selected points for all seven items. Individuals who have high scores (towards the "strongly agree" anchor) may have difficulty in dealing with dying patients, while those who have low scores may be more comfortable in palliative care settings. This assessment tool has been presented in original and subsequent studies. It has been utilized in multiple health professions and learner groups including medical students, physicians of various specialties, nurses of various specialties, and physician assistants. Additional validity evidence for the Thanatophobia Scale is needed to evaluate characteristics of items in different groups of learners, as it has been used among multiple healthcare professions. Moreover, thanatophobia scores that correlate with observed performances may increase validity evidence for the use of this instrument. Also, many of the publications that have utilized the Thanatophobia Scale have incorporated it with other scales and assessments. The original Thanatophobia Scale contained 7 items, but later it was incorporated in two larger scales of 81 and 110 items by the original authors. The combination of the thanatophobia items with other scales makes analysis of the psychometric properties of the scale itself difficult.