Resumen

ACOSTA NORDET, Maritza C.; RONDON CABRERA, Juan José  y  SOLER LAHITTE BIGNOTE, Mercedes. Perception of death and happiness in students of Nursing Baccalaureate . Rev Cubana Enfermer [online]. 2008, vol.24, n.2. ISSN 0864-0319.

Objective: to know if educators are influencing on the formation of a system of human-altruist values among the students of the new formative model that allow them to change the perception of death and happiness to assume their interventions in correspondance with these events. Methods: a descriptive prospective study was carried out to assess the perception of the Nursing Bachellor during their academic training at the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Santiago de Cuba during the academic courses 2003-2006. 60 students enrolled in the first year wee selected by the simple random method. Results: in the first-year students it was found the perception of death associated with the meanings of "fear", "end of life", and "I don't know" until the prevalence among the third-year students of "cessation of the vital functions", "cardiorespiratory arrest" and "challenge for the professional exercise". Conclusions: as regards the influence of the formative process on the consolidation of universal values, happiness was perceived in third year as a mood state, the subject widens his horizons to happiness and accepts death as a natural process.

Palabras clave : Education; death; happiness.