Abstract

The purpose of this research study was to explore the lived experiences of nurses caring for dying pediatric patients. Nurses and health care professionals may at times have difficulty adjusting and processing when life ends and this may have the potential to interfere with patient care. Reflection on past events and actions enable critical discovery of strategies to benefit both nurses and patients. The method for conducting this research study was from a qualitative phenomenological perspective exploring the lived experiences of nurses caring for dying pediatric patients. The philosophical underpinning of Merleau-Ponty (2008), in combination with the research method of van Manen (1990), was used for this research study. Nine female nurse participants, with between 1 and 4 years experience were interviewed. The meaning of the context of the lived experiences of nurses caring for dying pediatric patents uncovered seven essential themes of empathy, feelings of ambivalence, inevitability, inspiration, relationship, self-preservation, and sorrow bringing to a close that through the lived experiences of nurses caring for dying pediatric patients an overall theme of censoring becomes apparent. The Roy Adaptation Model (RAM) (Roy & Andrews, 1991; Roy, 2009) was found to be a nursing model that helped to understand that the nurse is an adaptive system functioning for a purposeful cause.

Description

This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 3623389; ProQuest document ID: 1552722978. The author still retains copyright.

Author Details

Danna L. Curcio, PhD, RNC, FNP, CNE

Sigma Membership

Mu Upsilon

Lead Author Affiliation

College of Staten Island, The City University of New York, Staten Island, New York, USA

Type

Dissertation

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Phenomenology

Research Approach

Qualitative Research

Keywords:

Pediatric Nurses, Dying Pediatric Patients, Roy Adaptation Model

Advisor

Martha Whetsell

Second Advisor

Brigitte Cypress

Third Advisor

Keville Frederickson

Fourth Advisor

Barbara Montero

Degree

PhD

Degree Grantor

The City University of New York

Degree Year

2014

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

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