Moral Meanings of Caring for the Dying
When it comes to taking care of the dying, there is so much to consider. Nurses who care for dying patients are often forced to start seeing the world differently, mostly because they become very close to the people they care for. The article Moral Meanings of Caring for the Dying, by Bouchal, addresses some of that from the personal standpoint and insights of nurses who work in end-of-life care situations. Some of them work with the elderly, but many of the patients are middle-aged and younger people, including children. It can be very hard to care for a dying person, especially if that person is still young, and nurses who do so shed many tears, often crying with the patient and/or the family (Cook, et al., 2012). This is a release for the nurses and the stress they must deal with when they care for dying people, and can also be a release for the patient and his or her family, since knowing that someone else is grieving with them can be very comforting.
Many people are fearful of dying, either because they believe it is the end of everything, because they are...
One of the most important things to address through reading an article like the one Bouchal wrote is that nurses who work with the dying have to see patients as people, not just as a collection of symptoms. When patients become "real" to the nurses, that is when those same patients are able to receive the highest level of help as they move through the process of passing on from this life. No matter what they believe about what (if anything) comes after death, they are still to be treated with respect and dignity, so they can make their transition with as much peace and as little pain and suffering as possible. The Bouchal article addresses that, as well.
Some nurses who were interviewed for the article felt that they were able to soothe patients quite a lot, but there were still many patients who struggled with impending death and who suffered simply because of the disease or condition that was ending their life. These nurses were very upset because the patients were not able to…
