Abstract

SILVA, Ricardo; LAGE, Isabel  and  MACEDO, Ermelinda. Nurses' experiences about death and dying in intensive care: A phenomenological reflection. Revista Portuguesa de Enfermagem de Saúde Mental [online]. 2018, n.20, pp.34-42. ISSN 1647-2160.  https://doi.org/10.19131/rpesm.0224.

BACKGROUND: Death is now being sent to the hospital at the expense of the intimate space of the home. Intensive care units are a highly technological space, open and deprived of privacy, where death is a frequent phenomenon, sometimes unexpected, but almost always traumatic. In this context, the nurse is confronted with diverse dilemmas and emotions that can compromise her mental health and consequently, condition the health care that gives to someone who experiences the end-of-life. AIM: To explore and describe the experience of death and dying experienced by nurses in an intensive care unit, and understands the meaning attributed to it. METHODS: We opted for a qualitative study, exploratory and descriptive, of phenomenological basis. The participants (N=25) were selected by convenience, and the sample being reached by theoretical saturation. The results were collected with the unstructured interview and analysed according to phenomenological reflection of the narratives in light of the prospect of van Manen (2016). RESULTS: From the analysis of the narratives emerged five (5) themes: conditioners of nurses' perception of death and dying; practices and contexts of patient care in imminent death; practices and contexts of care to the family; mechanisms of adaptation; and internal conflicts in the management of care. CONCLUSIONS: These results allow a broader understanding of the object under study and can guide the nurses´ interventions towards more person-centered, more dignified and more comforting care for the family and patients facing death in this and other contexts.

Keywords : Death; Nursing; Critical care.

        · abstract in Portuguese | Spanish     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )