Nursing students’ experiences of their first encounter with death during clinical practice in Taiwan

Aims and objectives. The aim of this study was to elucidate the experiences of first encountering death by nursing students during clinical practice. The objective is to assist nursing educational and clinical professionals to provide essential assistance for nursing students who encounter patient death. Background. Increasingly, deaths are occurring in hospitals. However, there has been little qualitative research in Taiwan on the experiences of nursing students who encounter patient death for the first time. Design. A descriptive qualitative method was employed to explore nursing students’ first experience with death during clinical practice in Taiwan. Methods. Purposive sampling, one‐on‐one, in‐depth with semi‐structured interviews were conducted to collect data. Participants were selected from an acute haematological ward in a major teaching hospital in Central Taiwan. Narratives were analysed using Colaizzi’s seven‐step method. Results. Data saturation was achieved after interviewing 12 nursing students. The average age of the students was 20, and seven and half days was the average time spent attending dying patients. Three themes and eleven sub‐themes were identified: Providing Care During the Dying Period (feelings of dread and terror, hardship of experiencing patient’s life fading away, devotion to patient care and self‐affirmation); Facing the Moment of Patient Death (state of being scared or trapped, emotional breakdown); Adjustment after Patient Death (acceptance or avoidance, growth or escape). Conclusions. Findings demonstrate the importance of understanding such first experiences, and the results are beneficial to clinical instructors and nursing personnel in understanding the students’ pressure and difficulties experienced before, during and after the patients’ death. Relevance to clinical practice. Several recommendations have been made, including teaching and support not only in the period of dying, but at the moment of patient death and postmortality. Avoiding topics about death in local culture have been noted.