Thai Buddhist intensive care unit nurses' perspective of a peaceful death: an empirical study.

Objective: To describe the concept of a peaceful death from Thai Buddhist intensive care unit (ICU) nurses' perspectives.

Methods: A descriptive qualitative study of data generated from individual in-depth interviews of ten intensive care nurses who practiced in adult ICUs in the southern region of Thailand. Content analysis was used to analyse the data.

Results: Four core qualities of a peaceful death emerged as described by Thai Buddhist nurses who practised in the ICUs. These core qualities are: peaceful mind; no suffering; family's acceptance of patient's death; and being with others and not alone.

Conclusions: Thai Buddhist nurses described a peaceful death as 'a situation in which persons who are dying have peace of mind, and do not show signs and symptoms of suffering. Peaceful death occurs when family members declare acceptance of their loved one's dying and eventual death. Such a death is witnessed by relatives and friends and the dying person is not alone.' The findings encourage nurses to be with, and provide palliative care for, dying patients and families.