In my current position as a surgical nurse I don't often see or deal with death. Over the past two years I can only think of 2 patients that have actually passed on our unit, and only one of those was I part of the direct patient care. In this case however I did find it strange because the patient was an elderly Hispanic that did not have family surrounding her at the time of passing.

This is strange for that culture. Family had been in the day before and seen that patient and said their goodbyes, the patient was expected to pass during the night in ICU. However ICU was short on beds so the patient had to be moved to our unit.

My beliefs about death and how I view it are based on my life before I was a nurse. First of all I had several great aunts and uncles and my grandparents that all passed before I was 15. I think this shaped my views of death differently than most because I accepted it at a young age as part of life.

I know some people who still have all their grandparents at 30 and I think when they have that first family member pass it is viewed much differently than I tend to view it. I worked in an assisted living where patients often times had hospice come in to see them at the end of life and they were allowed with hospice to stay in the assisted living until they passed.

These were patients that I knew and took care of for years. Watching them slowly decline over time and the pain they felt as well as the loss of abilities was hard for them and after watching them struggle and ask "why hasn't God just taken me home" when the time came I was happy for them. Seeing this happen so much I can say that even the patients I knew for years I felt it when they passed, however I didn't necessarily cry because they had finally gotten to go home and were not suffering anymore.