In fostering a familiar environment, the system of care, the
beliefs and patients’ wishes were involved. As another nurse said:
The system doesn’t support following the dying patient’s
wishes.Actually, near death, each second of life should be with
God but in the present, mostly be in the ward with nurses. It is
not the sound of praying and reading Noble Qur’an which
they wish.
Caring after death
Two participants also talked about ‘after death care’ that involved
beliefs and gender. The processes in caring after death were
cleaning and dressing the body, and respecting the deceased.
For Thai Muslims, the gender of the person who cleaned and
dressed the body must be the same religion as the deceased.
Muslims neededMuslims to dress the body rather than nurses
of other religious beliefs. Muslims were serious about body
cleaning and they cleaned inside the body by evacuating the
faeces. They had a belief that if the body was cleaned like this
the deceased would pass away peacefully.
At the moment of death, the participant believes that the
deceased still hears. The participants showed respect to the
deceased by talking to them as if they were alive.
We believe that during their stay at an ICU, the dying can hear.
We respect them.We talk with them as if they are alive.We will
be like their relatives. We will guide them to go to the good
place.