The critical care units of today are environments totally dedicated to implementing life saving and life supporting measures. The development of the critical care unit is such that now many critical care units offer specific specialised disease/surgical management e.g. the cardiothoracic unit, transplant centres. As the ability of the critical care units to offer extensive life supportive measures continually improves, the fact is that there is still an increased potential for death to occur in the critical care unit, more than in other acute areas. While the prime function of the critical care staff will always be to support and sustain the life of their patients for whom they care, they also have a responsibility to offer a caring and compassionate level of care to the dying critically ill patient and to ensure that they support the dying patients' relatives in every way that they can. The prospect of death (for the patient), and the actual loss of the patient (for the relatives/medical and nursing staff) can present a number of difficulties for all those involved. These difficulties, which will be identified in the course of the article, may if unresolved predispose to a poor and traumatic bereavement process for the relatives, while the critical care staff may experience possible feelings of frustration, helplessness and low morale. (Caughill, 1976). It is therefore the aim of this article to examine the role of the critical care nurse in caring for the dying patient in the intensive care areas. It will aim to offer some insight into the nature of grief, the process that may follow, and to relate this to the possible difficulties that the bereaved relatives may experience following the loss of their family member in the critical care setting. It will also identify those measures that can be implemented to promote a caring approach to meeting the needs of the dying critically ill patient, the bereaved relatives, and in which the health care professionals can take support and comfort during this difficult time.