Initial Reactions of Novice Nurses in Facing Death in Patients

Introduction: Facing the death of a patient is an inevitable part of the nursing profession and nurses in early years of their professional career are more vulnerable to this fact. Understanding their reaction after a patient&#۳۹;s death could lead to a better understanding of this phenomenon and pursuit of ways to reduce the damages caused in young nurses. Therefore, this study aimed to explore, describe and explain the initial reactions of the novice nurses in facing the death of a patient. Method: The study included ۱۲ nurses selected through purposive sampling from the hospitals in Birjand, Iran. To analyze the data, the "Graneheim and Lundman" qualitative content analysis method was used. Results: The four main themes extracted from the study were emotional turmoil, feeling sad due to altruism, a sense of desperation, and a feeling of guilt and failure. The subthemes identified under the emotional turmoil context were sense of confusion, fear, stress, frustration, shame and concern. For sadness due to altruistism, subthemes of crying, sadness and grief were identified. In the context of desperation, subthemes included feeling tired, feeling depletion of body forces, and inadequacies and shortcomings. As for the theme of feeling guilt and failure, identified subthemes were self-blame, guilt, shame, despair and being disgusted by their profession. Conclusion: Novice nurses experience many problems at the beginning of their cinical career which can cause serious physical and mental damage. Addressing these reactions provide substantial harm reduction strategies to help nurses and managers.

Keywords:

Nurses reaction , Novice nurses , qualitative research , Patient death