Welcome

Welcome to 'The Nurse's Role in End-of-Life' blog. This blog will be used with other course content and activities to prepare you professionally and personally to manage dying patients and their families. Weekly responses should be at least 250 words long and show personal insight along with understanding of course content. Each original response must also contain a photograph, song, article, or web site that relates to your response. Responses to other student postings are mandatory. Please respond to at least three other students throughout the week. Try to choose different students each week in order to encourage group unity and build relationships. The instructor will comment on the first post from each student each week.

Week 1 - Managing Death and Dying

While death may be more common in certain settings such as the ICU, the emergency room, or the nursing home, the possibility exists that a nurse can encounter death and dying in any professional setting. Death is a normal part of life, but our society does not usually discuss it until forced to do so. Discovering your own personal feelings and values is the first step to becoming comfortable with respecting the feelings and values of others. The activities for this week's blog include watching this video showing a simulation of a patient death, and reading this article. While you are exploring these activities, place yourself in the roles of each person in the video and articles. What roles are you comfortable in? What roles are you uncomfortable in? A nurse is part of an interdisciplinary team. What resources does the nurse use in the simulation experience? Are there any other members of the interdisciplinary team that would be helpful to the patient and his wife? In your response, please also address the following questions. How do you currently feel about death and dying? Do you use the words "dead" and "died", or do you choose words like "passed" or "expired" when speaking to others? Have you experienced the death(s) of anyone close to you? How do you feel this has impacted your ability to provide holistic care to dying patients and their families?