Estudio descriptivo sobre el afrontamiento de las enfermeras ante la muerte de un paciente pediátrico

Introduction

According to several studies, nurses feel that they are not prepared to face the death of a patient, especially when the patient is pediatric.

Objective

To describe the level of coping of nurses in various departments of a pediatric monographic hospital when faced with the death of a patient.

Method

A quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional, observational, case series study was carried out from February to April 2024 with nurses from the Pediatric Palliative Care, the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and the Pediatric Oncohematology Unit of a monographic pediatric hospital in the Community of Madrid. Several sociodemographic variables were determined and the Bugen Death Coping Scale was used as the main instrument, followed by a descriptive analysis of the data.

Results

In the present study, 69% had neutral coping with death, 19% had optimal coping and 11,9% had inadequate coping. It has been observed that nurses who work in Pediatric Palliative Care, have a fixed shift, have suffered the death of a family member in the last 3 years and have previous training, have a better coping with death. Likewise, it could be seen that older age and greater work experience, male sex and having children may be factors that favor optimal coping in the face of death.

Conclusions

Knowing these data helps to establish strategies for improvement, since it has been seen that greater preparation of professionals decreases anxiety in the face of death and improves patient care.