How would seeing a dead patient affect you personally?

[SA2BDOCTOR]

I am interested in knowing how will you feel, if a patient were to pass on you, or if you witnessned it etc. I ask because, when I did my clinicals... The patient I chose for my careplan, was fine and jolly as could be. The next day when I returned, she was gone. I felt really really sad. And other confusing feelings of which I dont have the words to explain. I know that in the Nursing profession, I will be encountering a whole lot of that...........................

Did you have any similar experience and how did you feel?

[carolinapooh, BSN, RN]

Daytonite: I am so sorry to hear of your mom's passing, god bless you and your family. Losing my granma was equivilent to if i had lost my own mother. She raised me from a baby till just before my 17th birthday when i came to the US to live with my mom and to start my college education. I never got to say goodbye to her, she passed before I could get back. I was devistated and angry but I believe in my heart that she did not want me to see her in the state she was in, that she wanted me to remember her as she was. Its been 4+ yrs and its still a very hard thing for me digest, there is still that shock and disbelief and i still cry sometimes because i miss her terribly. My grandma was my heart. So my heart goes out to you for your loss, its not an easy thing to handle.

Bless you both - I lost one grandma (paternal) 20 years ago and my maternal one five years ago as well, and my maternal grandpa died an unbelievable fifteen years ago this March. My paternal grandpa died about 29 years ago and I miss him in that I wish I had known him better; he sounds like such a nice man.

My dad died two years ago in April and I don't think I'll ever get over it. I was holding his hand when he died in the ICU and the strange thing is, I wasn't uncomfortable standing in the room with him once he was gone. I knew that Daddy, as I had known him, was already gone and all that was left was his body. He'd always said that when you die, all your questions are answered, and I wondered what great secrets he was discovering.

I don't know how my first patient will affect me. But I'm thinking if I can handle being in a room with my own father's body, right in the hospital immediately after he died, I have a good start on dealing with a patient.

Daytonite - I had no idea you are a (two time!) cancer survivor. Here's to you... :)