The On Being Born And Dying

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

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).

Death is inevitable. It is one of the only certainties in life. Regardless, people are often uncomfortable discussing death. Nyatanga (2016) posits that the idea of no longer existing increases anxiety and emotional distress in relation to one’s mortality. Because of the difficulty in level of care for end-of-life patients, the patient and the family often need professional assistance for physical and emotional care. Many family caregivers are not professionally trained in medicine, and this is where hospice comes into play. Hospice aims to meet the holistic needs of both the patient and the patient’s family through treatment plans, education, and advocacy. There is a duality of care to the treatment provided by hospice staff in that they do not attempt to separate the patient’s care from the family’s care. Leming and Dickinson (2011) support that hospice, unlike other clinical fields, focuses on the patient and the family together instead of seeing the patient independent of the family. Many times in hospitals, the medical team focuses solely on the goal of returning the patient back to health in order for them to return to their normal lives. They do not take into account the psychological and spiritual components of the patient’s journey and the journey that the family must take as well. For treatment of the patient, Leming and Dickinson agree that hospice does not attempt to cure patients, and instead concentrates solely

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

To begin, there are many aspects of helping patients that are dealing with grief, loss, death, or dying. Whether the patient has lost someone that was close to them or they themselves are dying, the situation is quite fragile. Some important aspects that may help when handling these patients are knowledge about the different cultures and their beliefs and traditions, different factors that have an impact on grief, and how to communicate with people living on the edge of life. These are all extremely important matters when it comes to such a sensitive situation.

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.

Dying is a process that involves the entire family; that is to say, the family that is defined by the person. The nurse must be aware that this is not only an individual process but a family process. This involves recognizing family dynamics and communication patterns and facilitating healthy interactions.

An important thing for nurses to do that are supporting bereaved individuals and families is to build rapport with the bereaved individual and family. In the study “Role of district and community nurses in bereavement care: a qualitative study” by Johnson (2015) found that “knowing the family and building rapport with them would help in the identification of any problems should they arise.” In order to be able to support a bereaved individual it is important for the nurse to know the stages and types of bereavement in order to provide effective care (Johnson, p.500, 2015). No matter what type of nursing a person choses for their career it is important to know the bereavement process. When nurses support bereaved family members of a patient it is essential that they know how to actively listen. Listening receptively and intently to an individual shows respect for the person and interest in what he or she has to communicate. When nurses are able to actively listen this demonstrates understanding and empathy. One last thing that is important is for nurses to be culturally competent. When nurses are culturally competent they are able to understand cultural differences and customs that in turn allows them provide the best possible care. Nurses need to accept the bereaved individuals beliefs and be nonjudgmental regardless of their own personal feelings or values. The nurse needs to be self-aware of

Nurses are prone to deal with death, whether they would prefer it or not. Although, there is an increase of medical advances to slow the progression of death, it is inevitable that patients will die. When a patient dies, nurses must deal with the grief and emotions that encompasses death. Due to the nature of how often nurses deal with death, it leads to an increase awareness of how they will someday face their own death. The increase in emotions and grief leads to an overwhelming increase in stress for nurses. Continuous increase in stress can lead to burn out in nurses. Therefore, nurses must learn effective coping methods of death to reduce any devastating emotions and maintain professionalism.

I interviewed Tracy, who is a registered nurse with Shands Homecare, before working there she worked at North Florida Hospital. She has been a nurse for about ten years. Along with the above questions I asked Tracy a few of my own, one of the questions I asked was if there was a significant experience dealing with death in her profession that impacted her more than others, and there was. She mentioned that she went to a patient's home one day, who had been her patient for quite some time, and she found them deceased. She said that part if that experience that really impacted her was that at the time she found the patient, the patient's son was getting home from school. Tracy said that is was a very tragic experience for her. I also asked Tracy

There is a time to be born, and a time to die. As frightening as it is, we will all die someday. Some will die at birth, some in a tragic accident, and others from a natural cause. The average person will live a full life, and die in old age. Cancers and other deadly diseases are becoming more prominent in our culture, the demand for end of life care is becoming substantial. Hospice nurses provide near death care, and attend to the emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual needs of the terminally ill patient. Hospice nursing would not be the perfect job for all nurses, it takes a nurse with a special heart, and calling to specialize in the hospice field.

The article points out how the American Nurses Association (ANA), the Hospice and Palliative Nurse Association (HPNA), and Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) do not support the use of assisted dying. However, due to recent law changes, the organizations are reevaluating their position on dying with dignity. The article talks about the countries and states that have legalized assisted dying and who can qualify to obtain the prescription. It also points out that nurses who live in these countries and states are more likely to be uncomfortable to talk about this subject with their patients. Either way, patients need to be educated and advocated for while following the code of ethics when dealing with the subject of assisted dying. The article also points out how a nurse needs to be a tentative listener to further assess why the option of assisted dying is being considered. A brief case study demonstrates how a good nurse can reveal the true motives behind choosing the assisted dying as an option. Finally, the article talks about different communication techniques and approaches a nurse can use when discussing the subject of

However, often the nurse will find herself dealing with difficult family dynamics with family members having differing expectations of the type of care that the patient should be receiving, staff conflict over treatment methods or strategies and high workloads. These issues can only compound the stresses on the Palliative Care Nurse and to cope

In relation to the purpose of this study, the driving force behind the research are three questions. What are nurses experience following patient’s death? What are their actions and coping strategies following patient death? Would better learning opportunities and supportive practice environments be provided once there is an understanding of nurses’ grief and coping process, if yes, was it beneficial. The researchers proceeded with a broad question which allowed the focus to be sharpened and delineated later in the

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.