Week Seven-Card-Life Span Development Chapter 12

     There is a wide variety of literature that informs its readers of how people can be different; people can look, cook, dress, think, eat, talk, and walk different from others, despite small similarities. However, there is one thing that all people have in common, death.  Just as people are born, they will surely die. Different lifestyles and choices in Western culture can either increase or decrease the percentage of the chance of death earlier, at, or later than "the average life expectancy [that] has been reported at an all-time high of nearly 78 years" (Fiore p. 280). In Life Smart chapter 12, it informs readers of some perspectives on death, its role in life, lists four types of death, give the legal definition of death, and describes the aspects of how people experience grief while coping with death. In history, death was unmentionable; no one liked to talk about it, and often associated it with evil. "Fortunately, in recent decades, this has begun to change, and death has become a more approachable subject of both research and public discourse, including media attention" (Fiore p. 280).
     When I started my nursing career, I remember how I dreaded death. Because I learned from not-so-reliable sources (television) that death was evil and it created a negative and spooky feeling. Having help from coworkers that assisted me while caring for dead or dying patients was very helpful, because the other myth was how the dead came back to take you with them or to just scare you by taking a violent last breath; I figured with help, at least one of us would have an opportunity to run away or help the other, definitely a scene right out of a cheesy horror movie for sure! After working medical surgery in a community hospital, I was quickly acclimated to death and realized how inaccurate the movies had been. I had witnessed people suffer, their quality of life had been reduced to lying in a bed unable to walk, move, or eat, all while in pain. In these instances, death seemed to be the logical remedy. When the patients would die, there was a sense of peace instead of horror, and it only looked like they were asleep as opposed to resembling a zombie. I found the horror to be in their suffering; it was quite scary to see someone walking and talking one day, and screaming in pain the next. I also spent some time working for a hospice agency, that job afforded me the opportunities to comfort patients and their families during their transition. I was able to witness first hand how the depiction of death had changed; people had started to accept death by opting to be comforted and transition peacefully after tremendous suffering and or a terminal diagnosis. I have never experienced a personal or professional traumatic death; the patients and close family members that have died, did so as a result of long suffering, or old age. I wish to never experience a sudden or traumatic death because the circumstances are the scariest things I could ever imagine. I remember hearing the codes over the intercom in the hospital when traumas would arrive, I was secretly relieved that I didn't deal with witnessing the gunshot, car accident, or murder victims, but I also awkwardly wondered how I would handle such a situation in my career, would I faint?
     Everyone deals with death differently, there is no specific way that one must cope with death or grieve, however, there are "some cases...morbid grief reactions [that] occur that prevent the successful conclusion of [the] life crisis [death]" (Fiore p. 285). There are extreme ways that some people grieve that warrant professional help and resources are available in many forms; professional help with severe grief can come in the form of grief counselors, social workers, clergy, primary care doctors, nurses, and or licensed therapists. In grieving cases that are not extreme, discussion or support groups can be very helpful.