ABSTRACT
The study of death and dying is available through various courses offered in schools and colleges and seminars to the public. This development in America opens up the possibility of enlightenment about ourselves and our attitudes towards death. Learning to accept death as a natural part of life is the process by which man is able to value and enjoy life. Caretakers in hospitals experience frequent encounters with death. On some services, death can be an infrequent experience, such as a sudden death on the psychiatric unit or in rehabilitation medicine. In hospitals, unlike home situations, it became the practice to "shield" the dying patient from the view of other people: the staff, the family, visitor- and other patients. Dying patients are sometimes isolated from other people and placed in private rooms. To the physician the death of a patient can provoke feelings of defeat, humiliation, anger and helplessness.
