Caring of the dying patients and facing the death can be a stressful and difficult experience for nurses. Besides personal and professional experiences, nurses' own attitudes toward death may affect the care given to dying individuals.
Culture is a big factor of how a society perceives death and how health care professionals treat their patients. In the Philippines, we see death as a tragic event, almost the closure of everything for some families and ranked as the number one most traumatic event that may happen in one's life. These insights give nurses various plans of care and the blueprint of how they should care for the dying and also to the family.
Nurses are professionals bounded by many moral and ethical obligations in all situations and to all people they work with everyday. These duties include the observance of rights of patients. Aside from the delicate physical care we render to dying patients, we must also consider upholding their dignity even when they are faced with the reality of death. Listed below are the dying patient's bill of rights:
- I have the right to be treated as a living human being until I die.
- I have the right to maintain a sense of hopefulness however changing its focus may be.
- I have the right to be cared for by those who can maintain a sense of hopefulness, however changing this might be.
- I have the right to express my feelings and emotions about my approaching death in my own way.
- I have the right to participate in decisions concerning my care.
- I have the right to expect continuing medical and nursing attention even though "cure" goals must be changed to "comfort" goals.
- I have the right not to die alone. I have the right to be free from pain.
- I have the right to have my questions answered honestly.
- I have the right not to be deceived.
- I have the right to have help from and for my family in accepting my death.
- I have the right to die in peace and dignity.
- I have the right to retain my individuality and not be judged for my decisions which may be contrary to beliefs of others.
- I have the right to discuss or enlarge my religious and/or spiritual experiences, whatever this may mean to others.
- I have the right to expect that the sanctity of the human body will be respected after death.
- I have the right to be cared for by caring, sensitive, knowledgeable people who will be attempt to understand my needs and will be able to gain some satisfaction in helping me face death.
On top of it all, we must ensure that our focus is on the "quality of life" while they are on the verge of sunset and to make them experience pleasurable moments before they bid farewell to the world.
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