When a patient dies: how nurses deal with their own emotions

Experiencing the death of a patient or service user can be difficult and strategies to cope with the feelings you might have are part of a nurse’s toolbox

• Most nurses will experience patient death during their career and for some, such as those in palliative care, it is a common occurrence
• Nurses in diverse settings, from critical and emergency care to the community, talk about deaths of patients and how these events affected them
• Debriefings. going for a walk or performing last offices are among the advice nurses offer on ways to cope

French doctor René Leriche wrote that every surgeon carries a small cemetery around with them.

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