Caring for Dying and Meeting Death: Experiences of Iranian and Swedish Nurses

OBJECTIVE: Our world is rapidly becoming a global community, which creates a need to further understand the universal phenomena of death and professional caring for dying persons. This study thus was conducted to describe the meaning of nurses’ experiences of caring for dying people in the cultural contexts of Iran and Sweden. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using a phenomenological approach, phenomenon of caring for dying people was studied. Eight registered nurses who were working in oncology units in Tehran, Iran and eight registered nurses working in hospital and home care in North part of Sweden were interviewed. The interviews were analyzed using the principles of phenomenological hermeneutics. RESULTS: The findings were formulated based on two themes included: (1) “Sharing space and time to be lost”, and (2) “Caring is a learning process. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that being with dying people raise an ethical demand that calls for personal and professional response, regardless of sex, culture or context. The physical and organizational context must be supportive and enable nurses to stand up to the demands of close relationships. Specific units and teamwork across various personnel seem to be a solution that is missing in Iran.