Abstract
This paper aims to ascertain how nurses change emotions on the death of patients as they witness death many times. The paper interviewed twelve nurses who had several years of experience. Among these, two interviewees revealed significant changes from the beginning of their nursing careers and after they witnessed the deaths of many patients, hence the paper examined the interviews of these two nurses in detail. The results revealed that novice nurses feel surprised or puzzled when they encounter the death of a patient. There was a tendency among novice nurses to avoid any involvement with such patients because they carry the mental burden of their relationship after the death of these patients. However, after witnessing the deaths of many patients, nurses became actively involved with dying patients and their families, and their emotions towards death changed to sorrow since they knew the life history of the patients beyond their diseases.
This paper discusses why nurses experience these changes. Since they have experienced the death of many patients, nurses have formed a perspective of life and death as peaceful death. First, they have recognized that eventually everyone will die; second, it is ideal that no pain or regret should remain to patients; third, the professional attitude of the nurses intervenes to realize an ideal death for the patients. I contend that this change in the view of life and death has helped the nurses to overcome the mental burden and encouraged them to be involved with dying patients. This involvement of the nurses with their patients can be what Hochschild discussed as an emotional labor, because the nurses managed the emotions of others, by involving the dying patients and their families, so that they had no regret. The nurses managed their own emotions and inducing their sentiments by listening to the patient ’s life history, or suppressing their feelings by viewing life and death as peaceful death.
