OBJECTIVE: To understand fear of death and its relationship with emotional intelligence and other variables in nursing students in the last years of study. METHODS: A descriptive and correlational study. Students (n = 188) responded to a questionnaire about: socio-cultural characteristics; Fear of Death and Emotional Intelligence Scales. RESULTS: We obtained a measure of medium to high for fear of death (x = 3.35) and also the emotional perception component was positively correlated with the fear of death, while understanding and emotional regulation were negatively correlated with fear of death. The higher scores for fear of death were associated with the female gender, with lower levels of courses, and the perception of lower academic preparation on the subject. CONCLUSIONS: High levels of emotional intelligence, associated with less fear of death, provides evidence for the necessity of developing emotional skills in students facing transcendent situations and the unknown, such as death and the dying process.
Attitude to death; Fear; Emotional intelligence; Students, nursing
