Date of Award
Fall 1997
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Educational Policy and Leadership
Abstract
Some years ago an ambulance brought to the emergency department a 19 year-old young woman critically injured from a "head on" motor vehicle accident. The "Code Team" established resuscitation efforts, and the nurse went to the mother in the waiting room to give her an. update on her daughter's condition. The mother began to cry, hit the wall with her fist and screamed "Oh, why, God?" The nurse notified the chaplain who sat with the family during the resuscitation. Efforts to revive the young woman failed and the nurse and physician went to tell the family. The physician coolly informed them of their daughter's-death and left. The chaplain said a perfunctory prayer and left. Nevertheless, it was the nurse who knelt by the mother, and put her arm around her. It was the nurse who brought the mother to the bedside of her daughter and prayed with her. Later the mother reported that she could not have faced her daughter's death without the aid of the nurse. The nurse involved had an education which emphasized care of the spiritual dimension. Would a nurse who was educated today provides this advantage?