The purpose of this study was to clarify the association between hospital nursesʼ views of life and death and their attitudes toward terminal care, as well as the effects of education and training on views of life and death，to elucidate suggestions for improving the quality of terminal care. Of 1470 subjects, 1101 nurses experienced in terminal care completed a questionnaire about their views of life and death and their attitudes toward terminal care and basic nurse attributes. After invalid responses were excluded, 1006 responses were analyzed to clarify the relationship between views of life and death and attitudes toward terminal care and to identify factors related to views of life and death. Nurses who associate death with anxiety, fear and release from pain, or who avoid thinking about death, show a negative attitude toward terminal care. Moreover, nurses who have received education about death show less avoidance in thinking about death, and nurses with greater experience caring for terminal patients show less avoidance in thinking about death and show less anxiety with death. The study clarifies that nursesʼ views of life and death affect their attitudes toward terminal care. Lowering fear of death, death avoidance, and acceptance of escape is necessary for improving attitudes toward terminal care. To achieve this, nurses should be conscious of caring terminal patients so that they can be at peace in their last moments, and education about death should be provided in an ongoing and systematic manner both at school and in the hospital.