Charo Oroz PHOTO: Manuel Castells

Charo Oroz, professor at School of Nursing at the University of Navarra, has just published the book Aspectos psicosociales acerca de la muerte (Psychosocial aspects of death). In it, the author explains the need for nursing students to reflect on illness and death, issues that they will face very often during the internship of their profession.

"Students are going to encounter sick people who are going to die soon and families who are anticipating the loss. On the internship they are going to 'suffer' with those who are suffering," he says. "The classroom and the real-world setting are two very different scenarios. They are both necessary and complementary learning environments."

The book collects the impressions of nursing students when faced with issues related to death in their daily attention with the sick person. "In most cases the mourning reaction is one of deep sadness, but it is true that each loss is very different and is experienced differently. It depends on many factors, both the subject of illness and death, as well as the age of the deceased and the age of the bereaved...", explains Professor Oroz.

Preparing to accept illness and death
"Support for the sick is very important. They need to be able to lean on someone, talk about what worries them, resolve their doubts, cry... and find someone who listens to them, who understands them, who allows them to talk about all that, who remains serene and gives them encouragement. All this is very important. The patient needs the professional by his side, but also the person," he says. 

"Sometimes I think people are not prepared for something as important as facing illness and death. When they come they are something rare, always unexpected. We accept them badly because we don't know what to do with them. We should consider them sometime, talk about it, ask ourselves these questions," he concludes.