Suffering and Liberation: Significances of Death in a Pediatric ICU

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the significance of death to physicians and nurses in a pediatric ICU. The research was designed considering a qualitative approach and its data gathering was carried out through semistructured interviews guided by primary questions. Four nurses and four physicians who work in the pediatric ICU took part in this study. Data was analysed through content analysis, in which appeared the following two categories: “Death as suffering” and “Death as liberation”. In one side, the suffering before the contrast between death and life was highlighted, wich means when death is opposed to the characteristics of vitality, expectations and fantasies of life. In another side, death still might be meant as a liberation or as the end of suffering for the dying process, wich was understood as more anxiogenic than the death itself.