Experiencing the death-dying process: a phenomenological analysis of patients with terminal cancer

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to understand the suffering emanating from the terminality process and its consequences in the lives of those who experience it. This is a phenomenological study, based on Heideggerian thought, carried out with 11 patients with advanced cancer. The data were obtained through open interviews, conducted from November 2015 to March 2016. Two themes emerged from the results: “Confronting the death-dying process” and “Revealing the suffering from terminality”, both of which demonstrate that it is in the confrontation of death that each Being uniquely experiences their individualized way of being-in-the-world. It was concluded that the Being that experiences the terminality of life process reveals, in their own way, their encounter with suffering and the process of acceptance and comprehension of their finitude. This ascribes a crucially holistic and individual eye to nursing, so that the necessities of those experiencing the terminality of life process are contemplated.