NURSING STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING OF DEATH

Abstract

Death has become an unknown evil, which towers over people and destabilises them, causing, often, irreversible mental harm when they are suddenly faced with family losses. For this reason alone it is justifiable to study it, for the possibility of promoting reflection on how one should lead one’s life and treat people in the light of finitude. This study aimed to understand what death means for students of Nursing; which perspective led to a phenomenological approach with a qualitative dimension. It was carried out through interviews with ten students in July 2009. There emerged from the interviews a range of feelings such as fear, anguish, insecurity, failure and sadness, according to the experiences felt by each interviewee. To understand the units of meaning which emerged from the empirical data and which constitute the essence of this investigation, the studies of Heidegger, Bicudo, D’Assunção, Dastur, Morin, Boff, Kübler-Ross and Boemer, among others, were fundamental. From understanding the phenomenon studied, it can be affirmed that death produces conflicting emotions, which lead the students to self-protection. Nevertheless the students showed themselves to be sensitive and receptive to looking at death in dimensions other than those with simply technical aspects. The research showed weaknesses in the training of nurses in that which concerns the understanding of the human being in all its totality and finitude, and the necessity of overcoming these.