Thai Nurses’ Experience of Caring for Persons Who Had a Peaceful Death in Intensive Care Units

Abstract

This phenomenological study describes the lived experience of caring for persons who had a peaceful death in the intensive care units. Ten intensive care nurses in south Thailand participated in individual interviews. Van Manen's approach was utilized to synthesize data. The lived experience of Thai nurses caring for persons who had a peaceful death is: understanding the other through valuing experience and enhancing relationships with others by recognizing time is short and is a priority. Boykin and Schoenhofer's theory of nursing as caring provided the theoretical lens for interpreting the meaning of the phenomenon.

Thai Buddhist families' perspective of a peaceful death in ICUs

“…The concept of a peaceful death in the ICU from the perspectives of Thai Buddhist family members were considered in this current study. These were found to be similar to the perspectives of Thai Buddhist ICU nurses investigated in previous studies (Kongsuwan and Locsin, 2009; Kongsuwan et al , 2010; Kongsuwan, 2011; Kongsuwan et al , 2011).…”

“…These processes involve family members as partners in a caring team providing end‐of‐life decision‐making and comfort. This is commensurate with a study of the experience of eight Thai Buddhist nurses caring for dying persons in ICUs (Kongsuwan and Locsin 2010; Kongsuwan, 2011). These nurses understood that family members were significant to the dying persons, and welcomed their participation in the end‐of‐life care of their loved ones.…”

“…These studies explored end‐of‐life decision‐making (Gerstel et al , 2008; Gries et al , 2008), family perceptions and satisfactions on quality end‐of‐life care (Kjerulf et al , 2005; Teno et al , 2005; Fridh et al , 2007a, 2007b, 2009) and the bereavement of family members (Van der Klinka et al , 2010). Recent studies have focused on the concept of a peaceful death, knowing the occasion of a peaceful death and the promotion of a peaceful death from the perspectives of Thai Buddhist ICU nurses (Kongsuwan and Locsin, 2009; Kongsuwan et al , 2010; Kongsuwan, 2011; Kongsuwan et al , 2011).…”

Aesthetic Expressions Illuminating the Lived Experience of Thai ICU Nurses Caring for Persons Who Had a Peaceful Death

“…2 The meaning of the lived experiences of Thai nurses caring for these patients was illustrated using symbolic thematic categories in the form of descriptions within each of the lived worlds. 1 The present work further illuminated the meaning of the lived experiences of caring for persons who had a peaceful death. Of the 16 thematic categories, a selection of 2 thematic categories representative of each lived world was made.…”

“…1 These narrative descriptions of the lived experience were the bases of the findings-descriptions of the lived experience of "caring for," re-presenting the lived experience as aesthetic expressions. Audit trail provides a sufficiently clear and full account of the research process and findings of the study.…”