Understanding the lived experience of loss and grieving in persons with end stage renal disease: a humanbecoming approach.

Grieving a loss is a devastating universal human experience that affects our emotional, physical and spiritual well being. End stage renal disease is a lifelong illness creating a serious and complex impact on individually defined quality of life. Losses such as that of independence, employment, self-esteem and physical functioning can leave individuals in a state of ongoing grief. Parse's humanbecoming theory provides nephrology nurses with a framework for practice that is based in a human science philosophy. The purpose of this paper is to explore the phenomenon of loss and grieving in the population with end stage renal disease, and how Parse's humanbecoming theory can have a positive impact on the lives of both nephrology nurses and the patients for whom they care.