PHI 413V Topic 4 DQ 1

PHI-413V

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.

Death is the elephant in the room for my oncology patients. I give out quite a bit of anti-anxiety medication because an impending death is not always welcome. For some of my patients who are transitioning into the actively dying phase, living gets quite exhausting. They’re weak, they’re tired, it’s a struggle to lift the fork to eat, it’s a struggle to taste anything even after they’ve stopped chemo, and they just can’t get comfortable. The majority of my patients are a DNR and also a Hospice patient. A potential patient death is waiting for me every time I clock in.

My view on death was shaped long before I went into nursing. My childhood onward was watching cancer eat away and taken the majority of my family members from me. I watch my mom struggle now. Giving back to the oncology community seemed the only logical thing for me to do after I graduated nursing school. My past has allowed me to empathize with my patients and their families. My previous view on death was this anxiety inducing, heart wrenching, overwhelming sadness. After having the opportunity to work with my oncology patients my current view of death has changed to a much more peaceful perspective.

Death is going to occur for each of us one day. As I have worked in oncology I realize that accepting death as a natural part of life has helped me live more fully. Believing that there is life after death eases the fear of death as well. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?” (John 14: 1-2).

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