Abstract:

Objective To explore ICU senior nurses’ experience on caring for ICU dying patients and coping with patient death. Methods A qualitative descriptive study was adopted. A semi-structured interview was utilised to explore the views and perspectives of 11 senior nurses,who were from ICU department,a tertiary hospital,in Zhengzhou City,Henan Province. These participants were purposively sampled. Colaizzi analysis was conducted to analyse the qualitative data. Results Four main themes emerged from the qualitative data,including being experienced in coping with death,lacking of skill on end-of-life and death communication,experience of job burnout and strong sense of professional value. Conclusion Senior nurses from ICU were able to take care of dying patients and deal with patient death,but they had end-of-life communication needs and had a sense of professional exhaustion.

Key words: Intensive Care Units, Nurses, Qualitative Research, Coping with death