Azahara Torres Santos
University of León, Spain
Biography
Azahara Torres Santos graduated in nursing degree by the University of León (Spain) between 2010 - 2014. When she finished her degree in 2014, she started to work in a nursing home, where she was in charge of 49 residents, in order to acquire professional experience. After one year and a half working there, she decided to try working as a nurse in a different country and moved for a job in an Endocrine and Elderly Care ward in Basildon and Thrurrock University Hospital in UK, and worked there nearly two years and a half. Back in Spain, in her native country, she got a job in the Leon University Hospital where she had her placements during the degree. Currently she is working there in general medicine and palliative care. She do not have any specialization or post graduated master although she studied several post graduated courses to keep me up to date. However, her professional career has been performed mainly on the elderly care field which find rewarding.
Abstract
The nursing staff is in permanent contact with death throughout their working life. In addition, attention in the process of dying, to family members and to the patient, is considered part of the nursing role. Patient care at the end of life generates in the nursing professionals feelings and an attitude to death, as well as a stage of coping with the fact of losing a patient, that are very different among professionals. Objective: To evaluate how a good training in palliative care and teaching techniques of coping with death to nurses, can help these health professionals to cope better with the death of patients and to have a healthier attitude to the patient dying process.
Material and methods: this bibliographical review was achieved through the search of scientific evidence in the PubMed, Google academic, LILACs and Cochrane Library databases of articles in the last five years and the critical reading of them.
Results: The number of articles that relate training in palliative care and coping with death is insufficient to establish scientific evidence. However, articles found that the attitude and feelings to death by nurses are often negative or indifferent. Furthermore, the nurses participating in these studies state that the teaching of coping techniques and training in care palliatives could improve these results.
Conclusion: Training in palliative care for nurses during their university period as well as training throughout their professional career should be greater, so that nurses face better the death of patients and have an attitude that favors better care at the end of life.