Sharing feelings and thoughts about death and the process of dying

Abstract

Objective: Revealing the concept of death and the feelings noticed by the nursing students when facing death. Methods: This is a descriptive qualitative study with 34 nursing graduate students. The main questions of the study were: What is death to you? What do feel, think and realize about your death? Results: The categories about the meaning of death were: end with passage to another life; loss of the sense of life; the real end; not to be anymore; normal in spite of undefined; a rest of reality; pain and suffering, because it involves being alone and the organic interruption of the body systems. The feelings about death were grouped into tragedy and certainty of physical and/or spiritual suffering; fear of the unknown; fear of a not accomplished mission and frustration with the loss of dreams; relief and rest of a lived life; sadness and worries with relatives; desire to be free of suffering and denial of his/her existence. Conclusion: Death may be one of the greatest mysteries of the existence of the human being, demanding efforts for its understanding and acceptance in the historical context of the evolution of the thought.