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Survey of Attitudes Toward Dying, Death, and the Finiteness of Life in End-of-Life Care

Dissertation Project

Survey of Attitudes Toward Dying, Death, and the Finitude of Life in End-of-Life Care

In her doctoral project, Ms. Groebe examines attitudes toward the dying process, death, and the finitude of life. Attitudes are understood here as a multidimensional construct. They encompass thoughts, feelings, and a person’s behavior in response to being confronted with the end of life. In a positive sense, attitudes may, for example, involve acceptance of dying and death; in a negative sense, they may involve fear of these phenomena. The goal is to lay the groundwork for the development or refinement of a method. This method should capture attitudes toward dying, death, and finitude in all their complexity and be adapted to the requirements of the end-of-life care context. To this end, existing survey methods are analyzed with regard to their underlying constructs and methodological quality, and the practical requirements for the use of such methods in end-of-life care are discussed in group interviews with caregivers.

Research Interests

  • Interdisciplinary field: Psychology and Medicine
  • Psychological stress at the end of life
  • Role of the psychologist at the end of life

Education

  • 2010 B.Sc. in Psychology, Leiden University, Netherlands
  • 2014 M.Sc. in Psychology (applied), University of Cologne

Professional Career

  • Since Feb. 2015 Research Assistant at the Research College “Well-being into Old Age,” University of Cologne
  • 2014–2018 Research Assistant at the Center for Palliative Medicine, University Hospital Cologne, on the project “Palliative Counseling Hotline for People with Severe MS”
  • 2012–2014 Student assistant at the Center for Palliative Medicine, University Hospital Cologne, on the project “Needs in Severe Dementia”
  • 2011–2012 Student assistant at the German Institute for Addiction and Prevention Research, Catholic University of Applied Sciences NRW, Cologne, on the “Trampoline” project

Publications

    • Strupp J, Groebe B, Knies A, Mai M, Voltz R, Golla H (2017). Evaluation of a palliative and hospice care telephone hotline for patients severely affected by multiple sclerosis and their caregivers. European Journal of Neurology, 24(12), 1518–1524.
    • Strupp J, Groebe B, Eisenmann Y, Schmidt H, Voltz R (2018). End of Life (Chapter 23). In: K. Hank, F. Schulz-Nieswandt, M. Wagner & S. Zank. Handbook of Aging Research, Baden-Baden: Nomos (forthcoming).
    • Groebe B (2018). Attitudes toward dying, death, and the finitude of life in everyday care. ProAlter, 50(2), 48-51.
    • Groebe B, Strupp J, Eisenmann Y, Schmidt H, Schlomann A, Rietz C, Voltz R (2018). Measuring attitudes toward the dying process: A systematic review of tools. Palliative Medicine, 32(4), 815–837.
    • Perrar, KM; Schmidt, H; Eisenmann, Y; Cremer, B; Voltz, R (2015). Needs of people with severe dementia at the end of life: A systematic review. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 43 (2), pp. 397-413.