Nursing Life In Nursing

This author’s personal perceptions concerning patients facing a lingering terminal illness, have been shaped by over 20 years of critical care nursing experience. Facing death and illness on a daily basis requires self-examination and a high degree of comfort with one’s own mortality, limits and values. Constant exposure to the fragility of life forces respect for the whole person and the people who love them. A general approach to patients who are actively dying is to allow them to define what they want and need during this time. The nurse’s role

One is to help the bereaved to develop their own ways of coping and the other is to ensure that their own difficulties, needs and attitudes relating to death and dying of their patients do not compromise their psychological well-being. It was noted by the same author that the psychological impact and after events prevalent in a critical care nurses’ working environment remains relatively unexplored. Michell (2010) also felt that repetitive exposure to resuscitative measures, end-of-life care needs, prolonging life by pharmacological and mechanical means and the continuous adjustment of these critical care nurses to this hostile environment, results in psychological disorders such as post-traumatic stress

On reading this article and identifying the study, there was a clear insight on how death and dying, and even improved health, impacted those nurses (Conte, 2014). Nurses, who worked closely with their patients, through the perils and suffering, culminating of death and losses, had grief not readily explored to enable that comfort zone (Conte, 2014).

From a very early age I have had a passion and drive to help people. I was first inspired to go in to a nursing career by my grandmother who would tell me stories about her experiences as a midwife. One that stood out to me was when she travelled through a snowstorm to deliver a baby, and it is this level of commitment, care and compassion that I aspire to have. I have also found inspiration from my mum who is an ICU nurse and has always shared her experience and advice with me. This has been something that has resonated with me throughout my life and has always served as an inspiration.

Nurses: Assist the patients and families to cope with the end-of-life process such as assessing and

Death is a part of life and eventually everyone on this earth will experience it. Nurses play an important role in death. Mourning the death of a loved one is something that almost everyone will experience in this lifetime because it is a natural response to death. Bereavement, grief and mourning are all effected by one’s culture, religion, the relationship with the deceased, personality, and how the person died.

It is important to remember that care of the patient does not end when the patient dies. After the death there is still work to be done in the form of comforting the bereaved family members. It has been reported that some

The concept of helping a patient in a situation where he or she wished premature death not only causes moral implications to nurses but the reasoning behind not participating itself is not clear. In the article, it is mentioned that the nursing line of work is based on the core belief of the duty to not harm others therefore, it is an “ethic of moral opposition to kill another human being” (313). The objection for that moral theory is that nurses unintentionally harm patients when administering treatments that are supposed to improve and restore their health. Chemotherapy damages healthy cells but it is deemed to be morally justified because the intention of the treatment is to result in a greater benefit for the patient.

Death is inevitable at some point everyone must face it. Whether it is the death of a family member, friend, or a family pet, people are forced to deal with the death. Nurses however have more frequent encounters with death than the average person does. When a patient dies in a healthcare setting his or her nurse is obligated to deal with that as well. They must find ways to cope with the increased amount of death that

Acute hospitals play a significant role in end of life care, it is the place where most people die. Evidence suggests that end of life care in hospitals needs improvement. The purpose of this paper was to investigate patient and family experiences of hospital death, the weaknesses within the hospital setting and possible solutions to improve. A literature search identified common themes, these included:

I t is important that end of life care is delivered in respect of patients Autonomy, Beneficence, and in a Truthful way. In what follows I argue that we as nurses need to fulfill obligation to support and assist the dying patient and his family’s right to self-determination as it relates to end of life care. I believe that we have made headway but still have much to achieve. Education and research in these areas by and for health care workers and the general population would do much to improve the quality of end of life care.

Occasionally, the best care a nurse can provide is providing their patient the ability to have a good death. In a survey of acute care nurses conducted by Becker, Wright, & Schmitt (2016) it was found that dying well was

I believe that as a nurse, you should be advocating the patients wishes and concerns no matter what they are. In the case of a terminally ill patient, I believe that the nurse should participate in euthanasia. The patient should be able to have a say in when to end their suffering if it is proven that they are not going to make it or get better. By having the patient as their number one priority, I think that nurses should advocate those wishes and be able to end their suffering because in 2.1 in The Guide to the Code of Ethics for Nurses, it states, “Because the nurse’s primary commitment is to the patient, it carries the greatest weight and priority and consequently it trumps all other loyalties” (ANA, 2015, p. 26).

Have you ever had a moment in life that validated the direction in which you felt compelled to follow? A moment which never escapes your mind because it represents one of the purest, symbolic instances you have experienced? Or a moment as simple as being handed a book to encourage you to further your dream? A time to inspire you to succeed in becoming something even more significant than you already are? Or had a moment offering you the opportunity to enhance your knowledge, and thrust yourself into the world you so deeply want to be a part of? I was handed the Merck Manual along with a kind gesture and warm-hearted encouragement which aided in igniting a fire, reaffirming what I felt I was meant to do; it was a defining moment in my life.

Many nurses are regularly confronted with the hopelessness and exhaustion of patients and their families making it difficult for them to find balance between the preservation of life and the enablement of a dignified death. Nurses must acknowledge their own feelings of sorrow, fear, dismay and helplessness and recognize the impact of these emotions in clinical decision making. These distressing pressures may cause a nurse to contemplate intentionally assist in ending a patient's life as a humane and compassionate answer, however; the conventional goals and standards of the nursing profession mitigate against it.