The Process of Accepting Patient Deaths among Korean Nurses: Grieving over Dying / 한국호스피스완화의료학회지

Purpose@#Nurses’ acceptance of patient deaths enables them to practice holistic end-of-life care and pursue positive living. The place where most deaths occur in Korea has changed from home to medical institutions, making it necessary to understand the process through which nurses who practice end-of-life care accept patient deaths. This study aimed to obtain insight into nurses’ experiences of accepting patient deaths and to develop a practical theory regarding the context of this process. @*Methods@#This qualitative study investigated nurses’ process of acceptance of patient deaths based on grounded theory. @*Results@#A core category of this process was found to be “grieving over dying”, which consisted of the following steps: “being close by”, “being attentive”, “acknowledging together”, and “accompanying.” @*Conclusion@#This study established that nurses’ attentiveness toward dying people is due to their grief over patient deaths, and clarified Korean nurses’ process of accepting patient deaths and its related factors.

Concept Analysis of Nurses' Acceptance of Patient Deaths / 한국호스피스완화의료학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to identify a theoretical basis of end-of-life care by examining attributes of the concept of the nurses' acceptance of patient deaths. METHODS: Walker and Avant's approach to concept analysis was used. A literature study was performed to check the usage of the concept. To identify the attributes of the concept and come up with an operational definition, we analyzed 16 qualitative studies on nurses' experiences of death of patients, published in a national science magazine from 1999 to 2015. RESULTS: The nurses' acceptance of death of patients was identified as having four attributes: acceptance through mourning, attaining insight on life and death while ruminating life, facing with fortitude and practicing human dignity. Antecedents of the concept were experiences of patient's death, confusion and conflict, negative emotions, passive responses, denial of patients' death. The consequences of the concept were found as the holistic end-of-life care and active pursuit of life. CONCLUSION: This study on the attributes of the concept of the nurses' acceptance of death of patients and it's operational definition will likely lay the foundation for applicable end-of-life care mediations and theoretical development.

Nurses' Experiences of the Death of Patients in Geriatric Hospitals

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify and understand nurses' experiences of the death of patients in geriatric hospitals. METHODS: Van Manen's hermeneutic phenomenological analysis was applied in the interpretation of experiential descriptions of seven nurses who had experienced the death of patients in a geriatric hospital. RESULTS: The essential subjects derived from the experience of the nurses on the death of patients in a geriatric hospital are covered in the following 7 themes. 'Placed in death site', 'Difficult repetition of death and farewell', 'Emotional waves that rushes in after farewell', 'Dilemmas in a place with no preparation to greet expected death', 'Getting dull from continually being struck with sorrow', 'Being together with living death', and 'Showing courtesy for a good farewell and living well'. CONCLUSION: The results of this research will contribute to the development of policy on all the deaths of patients in geriatric hospitals and suggest basic data that need to be applied in real practice and directions to introduce plans for realistic improvements in nursing care of deathbed patients in geriatric hospitals.