For many people, dying is the most frightening thing that they can imagine. This is true even for many people who are deeply religious and who believe that they will find beyond this life another and better one, which is something of a puzzle, because eternal joy and salvation should be recompense of a very high order for leaving behind the toils of the world along with its familiar pleasures.
So why are people afraid to die? For some it is the fear that all humans feel in some measure for the unknown. For others, it is the knowledge that there is nothing beyond death but nothingness. But for many it is not the fear of death itself but the fear of dying, the fear of unrelieved pain and suffering. This paper looks at this last issue, at pain management for the terminally ill, as a subject that has been receiving increasing amounts of attention in the past decade. Ideas about dying with dignity and the importance of hospice care have become part of mainstream medicine and mainstream society and most doctors and most patients now believe that for the dying of any age heroic intervention (especially against the wishes of the patient) may not be heroic at all, but simply shows of egotism on the part of the doctors. It has become increasingly acceptable that to acknowledge that the most important service that medicine can offer to some patients (and especially those who are terminally ill) is the relief of pain.
This paper examines the importance of providing appropriate pain relief to the dying person from a nursing perspective, focusing on the different ways that nurses can help people not only die with dignity but also how to provide the quality of life that all people deserve, regardless of how much time that they may have remaining.
Concern for the relief of pain is called ôpalliative careö and refers to ôthe relief of pain and other troubling symptoms by appropriate coordination of all elements of care needed to achieve rel...