Facing death in the intensive care unit. A phenomenological study of nurses’ experiences

Abstract

Background: Nurses may experience considerable emotional burden due to patient death, in part as they are generally the professionals who have the most contact with patients. Objective: To describe the lived experience of Spanish nurses working in intensive care units regarding how they face the death of their patients. Methods: A qualitative phenomenological study was performed. A purposeful sample was used. The data collection strategies used included in-depth unstructured and semi-structured interviews, field notes and personal documents. Afterwards, data were analyzed using the Giorgi proposal. Results: 22 nurses participated, with a mean age of 40.8 years and a mean work experience of 13.8 years. Three themes were identified: 1) dealing with expectations of recovery, 2) accepting the age of death, and 3) experiencing emotional attachment. Conclusions: Nurses in intensive care units report a great emotional burden derived from patients death, Support programs for nurses should be organised within these units.

Keywords:

• intensive care
• nursing care
• burn-out
• attitude to death

Acknowledgements

To the “Unidad de Apoyo a la Investigación a la Enfermería” of the Gregorio Marañón University Hospital of Madrid and to all the nurses who shared their experience on dealing with patient death and how it affected them, and yet who are rarely provided the opportunity to comment on this critical aspect of their work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.