NURSES' EXPERIENCE OF DEALING WITH DYING PATIENTS

Understanding nurses' experience of patient death, the appropriate approach to
understand this phenomenon is the aim of this study. Also as a supporting role of the nurses,
understanding the notion of death, they can better provide care for their sick patient and their family.
As long as the nurses are not familiar with all aspects of death, they cannot be able to make right
decisions about the care of a really sick and dying patient. This study aimed to explore, describe and
interpret the patient's death, and to help the nurses to gain a deeper insight about that experience.
Materials & Methods: A phenomenological approach was used to conduct this research, because it
could obtain rich information about the patient deaths. Twelve nurses from high mortality wards were
chosen and they were individually interviewed. The data were analyzed by Vanmannen method.
Results: Five themes emerged from the findings that portrayed the experiences of nurses concerning
the patient deaths (mental erosion, faulty interaction, combined with the stress of caring, a feeling of
sadness and normalization). However, normalization of the patient's death may have beneficial effects
for the nurses, but the reactions of patients and their families should be taken into consideration.
Conclusion: The results revealed that nurses are experiencing serious problems. They need to be
supported by their families consistently. Ignoring the needs of nurses, can have adverse effects on the
patients and their community