4 DQ 1
When I worked in a long-term care facility, I experienced more deaths than when I moved to the hospital setting. I have experienced quite a lot of deaths, from chronic conditions to dying from a fall. Death and dying can be very difficult and stressful for every family because they just lost or is in the process of losing a loved one. Emotions are all over the place and people are in various stages of grief. Hoehner, P., J. (2020). The first time I witness death in my facility was with a patient, He was admitted months ago with advance colon cancer in the Nursing Home, and His illness was being managed by the Doctor. And out of the blue one morning, He c/o (complain of) terrible stomach pain 10/10 on a scale of 0-10, the facility doctor signed an order to take him to the ER, after few days at the hospital He was discharged to the facility on Hospice care, I never thought He was going to go that fast, He was put on Morphine from the hospital, He couldn’t eat and couldn’t talk, after two days the patient started making that gurgling sound, and as a Nurse you are trained of that sound, that death is eminent, the facility doctor was notified and the seeing and hearing the patient, gave the order to call the family, and inform Hospice. The patient died that Night. We went to the patients funeral the family especially wanted the Nurses that cared for their father present.
As a Nurse, every patients death experienced is one too many, because the patient was cared for by you, you have laughs together and they commended you for taking care of them so when they pass, it brings comfort when the Nurse advocate for the patient, for the facility to allow the family all the time they need to grief and not immediately want them to clear the patients room. Attend the funeral if possible because that is a closing moment for the nurse too. And as I grew older, I realized that death has no power at all, because it is our only way to transition to the afterlife. The body we are living in will only last for a while, but our true spirits will return to God our owner knowing that we are not from this world. I think death will be less scary and easier to deal with if we view life as a mission or an assignment. When our time is up, we return home to our Lord and live in his kingdom.
How often do you engage with or witness death in your work? How has this experience or the lack of it shaped your view of death? Has it gotten easier or harder for you to accept the fact of death? As you explain, include your clinical specialty.
Using 200-300 words APA format with at least two references. Sources must be published within the last 5 years.
