Attitudes toward death and death acceptance among hemato-oncologists: An Israeli sample.

In contrast to previous conceptualizations, the ability to adaptively cope with fear of death differed in accordance with death acceptance attitudes. Whereas neutral acceptance adaptively defended from fear of death, approach acceptance was associated with increased fear of death through death avoidance. As hemato-oncologists are highly exposed to patients' death and suffering, and are required to make critical medical decisions on daily basis, these findings may have substantial implications for end-of-life care and the process of medical decision-making regarding the choice of treatment goals: cure, quality of life, and life prolongment. Further research is needed to investigate the role of death acceptance attitudes among hemato-oncologists.