Exploring the role of spiritual care in post-death nursing.
Traditionally nurses have performed the act of laying out of the body of a person following death, referred to here as post-death nursing care. This article provides a reflective account of the experience of expert nurses during post-death care. Over the preceding weeks to a woman's death, two expert nurses had cared for her; she was elderly and had just died from multiple causes including metastatic cancer. The observations of a novice nurse during the post-death care led to the understanding that this final act of caring is not only a procedure, but also has a deeper spiritual dimension that can be modelled and described as a continuation of the depth of care given when the person was alive.
Ronaldson
Susan M
SM
Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Sydney, Mallett Street Campus, Camperdown, New South Wales 2006, Australia. sronaldson@nursing.usyd.edu.au
D000368:Aged; D001293:Attitude to Death; D005260:Female; D005655:Funeral Rites; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000451:nursing*; D009517:New South Wales; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000193:education; D029181:Spirituality