Dealing with the dead patient at the intensive care unit

Abstract

The way of dealing with the dead patient in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) seems to be intimately tied to social identity and personal integrity. The safeguarding of the integrity of the human body is the baseline for the nurses' post-mortem care at any time. Throughout post-mortem care, nurses oscillate between poles of proximity and distance to the dead patient, experienced alternately as a sentient person or an inanimate body. By washing and caring for the dead patient, and preparing the body for the viewing by relatives, nurses often maintain the personhood of the patient. However, technical apparatus and unpleasant changes in the physical appearance of the dead body may result in feelings of distance and aversion. This paper disentangles the care of the dead person from the reverence for the human remains. It will show how positions of proximity and distance are key resources with which nurses manage their exposure to death in their dealings with the dead. Finally, it will be argued that the personal integrity safeguarded during post-mortem care is tied to the integrity of the dead patient as well as to the integrity of the nurses themselves.