The lived experience of physicians before, during, and after death notification: A phenomenological investigation

This qualitative dissertation uses a phenomenological approach to investigate physicians' lived experience before, during, and after having to tell a family member about the sudden death of a loved one. Each physician participated in a semi-structured, in-depth interview describing what they experienced physically, physiologically, psychologically, emotionally, and cognitively before, during, and after the death notification, while noting the most difficult aspects of this task.The central themes that arose during delivering the death notification included: empathy, defeat, bodyhood burden, withholding emotional pain, relying on the mechanics of telling, the need for a how-to algorithm, saying "dead," silence, impotence of words, self-control, awareness of time, limitation of time, recipients' reactions, hypervigilance, closure, facing mortality, and the desire to escape.Finally, the common themes that occurred after delivering the death notification included: relief, rumination, emotional toll, realization of the inevitability of death and precariousness of life, moving on, coping, remnants, privilege, control, and the importance of autopsy.The themes or "meaning units" of each interview were integrated to describe the lived experience of death telling as a general human phenomenon. While adhering to the existential-phenomenological tradition, the description was explored through the lens of the existential givens: temporality, spatiality, historicity, co-existence, mood, bodyhood, and mortality. This allows anyone who has undergone the phenomenon of death notification to potentially understand the experiences described as likened to his or her own, simply because it is a human one.Several of the prevalent themes that arose for the physicians before delivering the death notification included: failure, power, fear, dread, personal loss, suddenness of death, responsibility, obligation, mental distraction, nature of death, characteristics of the deceased, relationship with deceased, senselessness of death, effort of saving a life, younger the harder, blame, lack of and regaining control, emotional suppression, invasion, and need for support from other professionals.