PHENOMENOLOGICAL PRE-UNDERSTANDING OF GRIEF AND DEATH IN THE ELDERLY: REFLECTION FOR CARE

Abstract

Death is a complex phenomenon, the process of dying and grieving turn out to be of great interest in old age. This narrative approach paper aims to reflect on the issue of death and grief in old age through the review of literature that allows the integration of a phenomenological pre understanding. The connotation of old age as the last stage of life focuses on death and grief as a characteristic phenomenon of this stage. Various losses are experienced by the older adult throughout his life, from physical decay, loss of children, loss of work and death as corporal finiteness of those close to them. Death is lived from the historicity of the elderly, the various experiences of loss shape death in old age and is important for the nurse from an integrative vision of care.