Dealing with Death: Many Nurses Are Unprepared to Assist These Patients

Dealing with death can be overwhelming for anyone, and that includes medical staff.

Scientists from the Shalgrenska Academy interviewed 22 nursing students at the University of Gothenburg, the University of Skövde and the Estrada Skondal University College in Sweden to find that caring for fatally ill patients often brought difficult and trying times.

"Death awakens feelings of helplessness, insecurity and insufficiency in most nursing students. Some find it natural to talk about death, while others consider it to be the worst thing that can happen and have difficulty coping with the need to talk about it," said Susann Strang, a scientist at the Sahlgrenska Academy, in a news release.

Many patients were so uneasy dealing with the subject of death that they would often change topics, according to the release. At the same time, a large fraction of the students said they considered it part of the responsibility of the nurses to appear strong in front of the patients.

"Our study shows that the students have an ideal of a competent nurse and perfect care that differs significantly from the actual situation. The issues of death and dying have much to do with the students' own fear and lack of experience, while at the same time they place high demands on themselves to be good caregivers," added Strang. "Many hope that this will become easier with time, and that one day they will have the courage required to care for dying patients and dare to engage with them. Nurse education can play a more active role here by discovering at an early stage which students experience strong anxiety about meeting and caring for dying patients, and offering these students guidance, training and support."

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the article "Swedish nursing students' reasoning about emotionally demanding issues in caring for dying patients" via the International Journal of Pallivative Nursing.