Nurses’ Perspectives on Patient Death and Dying

The aim of this essay

The aim of this essay was to investigate the death and dying encounters that nurses encounter in their work. The article continues by emphasizing that intensive care unit staff can suffer stress as a result of their prolonged exposure to death and aggressively dying patients. According to the paper, the researchers used a qualitative, analytical phenomenological design to collect data and involve participants. The researchers used the purposeful sampling approach, and participants were interviewed using in-depth interviews as the primary form of data collection. The thesis was accepted by the Durban University of Technology’s Faculty Research Committee. The article presents that the study found out that death and dying experiences have a significant impact on nurses and their professional practice. Further, critical care nurses require additional specialized training to enhance their response to critically ill and dying patients. The article sums with up with an account that Critical care nurses require support networks, to boost their practice as caregivers but also advance their emotional support and wellbeing. Given that most of the present support networks focus on enhancing the caregiving practice, there is need to reorient their focus to ensure that nurses’ emotional intelligence is improved.

INTRODUCTION

The concept of death and dying has been perceived differently among medical practitioners at different levels. Nurses are among the most affected by the outcomes of their experiences regarding death and illnesses of their patient. In particular, nurses working in intensive care units have had traumatic experiences due to repeated exposure to death and dying patients1. Therefore, it is significant to scrutinize scientific studies to find out how such practitioners are affected by death and dying patients exposure. This paper reviews the article “Experiences of Critical Care Nurses of Death and Dying in an Intensive Care Unit: A Phenomenological Study,” and gives a summary of the significant issues around death and dying from the findings that the article presented.

AIM

The article aimed at exploring the death and dying experiences that nurses go through in their practice. The article begins with an emphasis that intensive care unit workers could experience trauma because they are repeatedly exposed to death and actively dying patients. Similarly, a similar experience could occur due to exposure to terminally ill or patients facing impending death. In other words, death and dying are central and common in their nursing profession as well as their scope of practice. For this reason, nurses offering critical care experience difficulties in coping with stress arising from care for individuals who are dying. Also, they face a problematic effort to relate to loved ones of patients who die.

METHODS

The article outlines that the study employed a qualitative, descriptive phenomenological design to gather data and engage participants. Purposive sampling technique was used, and participants were interviewed by the researchers using in-depth interviews as the primary method of data collection. The Faculty Research Committee of the Durban University of Technology approved the conduction of the study. The Nursing Manager seconded the approval for the pertinent hospitals with eThekwini District Health Research Unit and the Faculty Research Committee. The population sample was selected from nurses who worked at the participant hospitals, particularly in Critical care units. The inclusion of various stakeholders in the nursing and research field ensured that validity and accuracy of data could be easily verified.

RESULTS

The article presents that the study found out that death and dying experiences have a significant impact on nurses and their professional practice. Further, critical care nurses require additional specialized training to enhance their response to critically ill and dying patients. Therefore, essential aspects such as communication, education, and coping mechanisms would be important nursing practice. At the same time, the study revealed that multicultural diversity is also an important aspect that could enhance coping with death and dying exposure experiences (Naidoo and Sibiya 2014).

CONCLUSIONS

The article sums with up with an account that critical care nurses require support networks, to boost their practice as caregivers but also advance their emotional support and wellbeing. Given that most of the present support networks focus on enhancing the caregiving practice, there is need to reorient their focus to ensure that nurses’ emotional intelligence is improved. Similarly Naidoo and Sibiya (2014) noted that regardless of culture, race or religion, an individual’s spirituality plays a significant role for nurses who care for the dying. Caregivers and other participants in this study would find it as a suitable resource to cope with death and dying of their patients or loved ones. Likewise, nurses’ age, maturity level, and their past exposure to death and dying patients would be crucial during provision of end-of-life care.

References

Naidoo, N and Sibiya, M.N. Experiences of Critical Care Nurses of Death and Dying in an Intensive Care Unit: A Phenomenological Study. Journal of Nursing and Care. 2014; 3:4 http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2167-1168.1000179