Coping level of nursing professionals facing patient death in intensive care units

Abstract

Introduction: Death is considered one of the most complex events experienced by humans, as it involves painful and sometimes traumatic processes. For nursing professionals, frequent exposure to death highlights the need for resources and strategies to face scenarios that may impact the quality of care. Objective: To determine the level of coping among nursing professionals when facing patient death in intensive care units in Medellín. Methodology: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with a non-probabilistic snowball sampling technique. A total of 40 volunteers who met the inclusion criteria participated. The Bugen Death Coping Scale was applied, and data collection was carried out using the Google Forms tool. Results: Seventy-five percent of participants were women, with an average age of 35 years. A total of 53% (n=21) of nursing professionals demonstrated optimal coping with death, 43% (n=17) showed intermediate coping, and 4% (n=2) had inadequate coping with death. Conclusions: Professionals exhibited a positive attitude towards the dying process, with 70% considering themselves to have a good perspective. Although 80% reported skills to discuss death, less than half felt fully prepared to face their own death. Most participants valued quality of life and demonstrated competencies to support terminally ill patients, although a significant percentage acknowledged areas for improvement in communicating with grieving individuals. These findings underscore the need to strengthen emotional coping and end-of-life care competencies.