Nursing: Is Death The Enemy? Embracing Death For Ourselves And Our Patients (799 hits)
Embracing Death For Ourselves And Our Patients
For many nursing and healing professionals, death is the enemy. That doesn’t come as much of a surprise really. Everything in our training, as well as everything in our culture, underscores that mindset. But this principle can actually be counterproductive more often than we realize. I am of the mind that if we encounter our mortality in an upfront way, we will be able to demonstrate genuine compassion to our patients and clients as they face theirs. Here are some things we might want to consider if encountering mortality is our goal:
Death isn’t only a universal biological fact of life, it's also a necessary part of being human. Everything that we value about life and living — its novelties, challenges, opportunities for development — would be impossible without death as the defining boundary of our lives.
While it may be easier to accept death in the abstract, it’s often more difficult to accept the specifics of our own death. Why must I die like this, with this disfigurement, this pain? Why must I die so young? Why must I die before completing my life’s work or before providing adequately for the ones I love?
Living a good death begins the moment we accept our mortality as part of who we are. We’ve had to integrate other aspects of ourselves into our daily lives – our gender, racial background, and cultural heritage, to name a few. Why not our mortality? Putting death in its proper perspective will help us appreciate life in a new way. Facing our mortality allows us to achieve a greater sense of balance and purpose in our life as well.
Dying can be a time of extraordinary alertness, concentration, and emotional intensity. It’s possible to use the natural intensity and emotion of this final season of life to make it the culminating stage of our personal growth. Imagine if we could help our sick, elder, and dying clients and patients tap into this intensity. Imagine if we had this kind of confidence about our own mortality.
