Self-reflection of Nurses who Experienced the Death of Patient’s : van Manen’s Hermeneutic Phenomenological Approach

초록

Aim: This study attempt to identify the experience, nature and meaning of the self-reflection of nurses who experienced death in a general ward by applying van Manen's hermeneutic phenomenology research method. Method: : The subjects of the study were 20 nurses with more than three years of clinical experiences working in general wards of tertiary general hospital. Data collection was conducted through face-to-face interviews and observations while implementing social distancing in accordance with the Covid-19 Social Quarantine Guidelines. For additional information, telephone consultation was conducted to minimize the meeting. The study question was "What self-reflection did you have after experiencing the patient's death?” After the data transcription, thematic analysis was conducted through hermeneutic phenomenological reflection, and finally, hermeneutic phenomenological writing was done. Results: As a result of the study, 10 essential themes and 26 sub-themes were derived for the four existences. The themes of physicality were found to be ‘feeling pitiful for the irreversible body’ and ‘wishing for a comfortable death’. Regarding the themes of time were found to be ‘an uncomfortable encounter with the death as a new nurse’ and ‘becoming a career nurse who becomes dull to death’. The themes of spatiality were found to be ‘ambivalent hospital space’ and ‘the last place determined by others’. The themes of relationship between patient and caregivers were found to be 'last person to meet before death: nurse', ‘being together by empathy’, 'planning for my good death', and ‘become an opportunity for maturation and growth'. Conclusion: The results of the above study can be used as basic data for the development of end-of-life nursing education for nurses and students as well as the development of nursing interventions for terminally ill patients in Korea.