Finding+A+Cure-+Death+Is+Killing+Nurses

Bickam, Melanie Ann. Distress in Nurses Following Patient Deaths: A local Response For The Need To Debriefing, Thesis. April 2009. Web. scholarworks.montana.edu. June 15, 2016.

This thesis is very comprehensive. It covers a plethora of categories surrounding problematic distress in nurses from patient deaths and how certain parameters, when put into place, would assist in minimizing stress that comes from patients dying. Some of the areas broken down include, positive coping, past experiences, prevention of death, emotional distancing, perceived needs, length of career and number of deaths experienced, reporting distress, problem identification and assumptions, distress symptoms, such as nightmares, guilt, anger, anxiety, sorrow, and frequency, as well as systems in place to consistently evaluate nurses specifically about their death experiences. As I devour the information, it gets more and more fascinating inside each of the areas being reviewed and discussed in her thesis. This Master’s student’s ideology implicates how death affects the physical body such as fatigue, gastrointestinal symptoms, inability to focus and concentrate, denial, withdrawal, addictions, and other forms of physical stresses on a nurse. All of these variables can impact and skew a nurse’s ability to cope, make sound medical decisions, and lead to behaviors that shape and mold a compassion mercy killing nurse. Different age groups of nurses are also phenomena. What generation a nurse was educated in, worked in, and what kinds of deaths the nurse was exposed to also factor in very heavily in compassion and mercy killing by nurses. Some nurses faced horrible illnesses and watched unimaginable suffering, if they served through the wars, plagues, mass genocides, mass murders, people dying from being tortured, domestic violence deaths, child deaths and how they died, especially children, and in what era and time span in their lives. One could interject here and say if a nurse is so impacted by death in such a negative way, why don’t they change professions and or why doesn’t the medical field deem them unfit to work in and around death? Since death is a natural part of life, it is not something to avoid, but to process as it is inevitable in everybody’s lives, just more so if you work in the healthcare field directly with sick and dying patients, so it does not make sense for a nurse to not pursue their calling, but to understand and cope with what comes with it. If society were to accept that philosophy, everyone would be out of a job.

This thesis will help tremendously in the research paper for categorizing aspects of nursing and how each area affects nursing. It also offers solutions to the issues in each area which is very rare, as most papers point out the problems, but seldom have answers and or viable potential solutions for each problem. According to the information included in this paper, addressing even the smallest minute deviation shows the vast impact that crossing an “T” and dotting an “I” can have in patient care. The specifics and details provided are astounding and will add a great fireworks display of clarity, hope, and practicality to the research paper. Though there are so many facets and vast terrains covered in nursing period, this thesis brings them into a summarized perspective that the most far away galaxy of issues and problems in the field are brought face to face with each other in the way the writing is presented. This student’s prudent and diligent commitment to improving nursing’s profession truly shines and is definitely outstanding in terms of her insight, medical and academic prowess, and brilliant simplicity in the way the author collated and disseminated the information.