NURS 750 Week 6 Group PowerPoint Presentation Final on Hindu Traditions at the End of Life Example

Awake to the Last Breath: Caring for Hindu Patients and Families in Death and Dying, a Presentation for Professional Nurses

Slide 1: Awake to the Last Breath

• Caring for Hindu patients and families in death and dying
• A presentation for professional nurses
• Group 4, NURS 750, Liberty University

Speaker notes: Good afternoon. Our group chose this topic because each of us has stood at the bedside of a Hindu patient at the end of life and felt unsure what the family needed. Over the next thirty minutes we will share what we learned and, more importantly, what you can do on your next shift.

Slide 2: A Request at the Bedside

• Man in his seventies, dying of pancreatic cancer
• Family asks: less of the medicine that makes him sleep
• Staff see suffering; family sees a lost chance to die well

Speaker notes: This composite case comes from experiences on our units. The nurses believed the family was keeping their father in pain. The family believed sedation would take away his last chance to hear prayers and think of God. A community Hindu priest helped the team understand, and a compromise of smaller, more frequent doses let him stay comfortable and responsive. Forty-eight hours on, he passed away while his sons chanted at the bedside. Keep this family in mind; we will return to them.

Slide 3: Learning Outcomes

• Explain how karma, rebirth and liberation shape end-of-life preferences
• Identify five or more rituals families may observe around a death, and how nurses support each
• Plan a goals-of-care conversation with a family spokesperson
• Balance symptom relief with the wish for awareness at death

Speaker notes: These are the four outcomes from our preparation paper. The questions at the end of the presentation test each one, so listen for them.

Slide 4: Why Nurses Need This

• Nursing students know little about Hindu death rituals (Thamanam et al., 2025)
• Dharmic-faith patients with cancer: 27% inpatient deaths vs. 12% for others (Patel et al., 2026)
• More ICU care in the last month, palliative care started late

Speaker notes: In a national survey of 414 nursing students in Ireland, knowledge of Hindu, Islamic and Christian death rituals was low, and most of what students knew came from outside their programs (Thamanam et al., 2025). Here at home, a large cancer hospital found that patients of Dharmic religions, most of them Hindu, were more than twice as likely as others to die in the hospital and more likely to receive intensive care in their final month (Patel et al., 2026). Those numbers suggest unmet needs and conversations that start too late.

Slide 5: One Faith, Many Traditions

• No single creed, priesthood or rulebook
• Practice varies by region, language, caste, family and generation
• Rule of thumb: ask, do not assume

Speaker notes: Hinduism is a family of traditions. A Gujarati family in New Jersey and a Tamil family in Texas may observe death very differently, and a second-generation daughter may hold different views from her parents. Everything we say today describes what many families value, not what every family will want.

Slide 6: Atman, Karma, Rebirth, Liberation

• The soul (atman) is eternal
• Karma shapes the next birth in the cycle of samsara
• Moksha: release from the cycle
• Death is a passage, not an end

Speaker notes: Because the soul continues, many Hindus see death as a transition whose conditions matter. Karma accumulated over a life shapes what follows, and the final goal is liberation from rebirth. This is the foundation for nearly every practice we will discuss.

Slide 7: What Makes a Good Death

• Thoughts turned toward God; holy names or verses spoken nearby
• At home, among family
• Conscious at the moment of death when possible

Speaker notes: Many families hope their loved one will die at home with the name of God on their lips or in their ears. A scoping study of religious teaching reported that Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh sources tend to prize a clear mind as life ends while still allowing palliative sedation when suffering cannot otherwise be relieved (De Weyer et al., 2026). That is the key to our opening case: the family was not refusing comfort; they were protecting awareness.

Slide 8: The Family and Its Duties

• Duty (dharma) to care for elders runs deep
• Sons often lead rites; decisions are shared
• Disclosure may pass through the family first

Speaker notes: Sharma and colleagues talked with immigrant parents and their American-raised children, nearly all Hindu, and found that obligations to family drove end-of-life wishes in both age groups, and participants described strain between traditional expectations and the demands of American life (Sharma et al., 2012). Expect large families, shared decisions and sometimes a request that serious news go to the family before the patient.

Slide 9: Intervention: Find the Spokesperson Early

• Ask on admission who speaks for the family
• Use professional interpreters, not children
• Ask how much the patient wants to know and from whom

Speaker notes: Clinicians caring for seriously ill South Asian patients named interpretation, identifying a spokesperson and cultural differences as their main communication challenges, and recommended asking about preferences early and encouraging the family to name a spokesperson (Khosla et al., 2017). Document the answer where the whole team will see it, such as the banner of the electronic record or the care plan, so the night shift does not ask the same exhausted family the same questions again.

Slide 10: Intervention: A Goals-of-Care Conversation

• "What is most important to your father now?"
• "What does a good death look like in your family?"
• "Is there a priest or elder you would like involved?"

Speaker notes: These three questions open the door. Listen for whether the family wants him home, wants him awake or wants specific rituals. Then match the plan to the answers: home hospice, inpatient comfort care with family presence, or a timed transfer home. If the patient is too unstable to travel, ask what would make the hospital room feel more like home, such as a picture of a deity, recorded chanting or family food brought in. Starting this conversation early may prevent the late, intensive hospital deaths the data describe.

Slide 11: Intervention: Comfort and Awareness Together

• Ask about the wish to remain alert before starting sedating drugs
• Use the lowest effective dose, given more often if needed
• Review with the family each shift

Speaker notes: Outcome 4 lives here. Pain relief and awareness are not opposites. Nonsedating measures, careful titration and shorter-acting drugs can treat pain while preserving responsiveness, and families can tell us when the balance feels right. If sedation becomes necessary for refractory suffering, explain why and invite the family's priest into the discussion. Asking about awareness is itself a form of pain management, because it lets the family trust the medication.

Slide 12: Intervention: Making Room for Ritual

• Allow larger family groups and chanting
• Holy water and a tulsi leaf may be placed in the mouth
• Leave sacred threads, beads and marks in place
• Offer privacy and a quieter room

Speaker notes: These practices are simple to support once we expect them. Ask before moving any religious item, and if suction or oral care is needed, coordinate with the family so that water or a leaf can be offered first. Practice guidance written for nurses caring for Hindu families describes these rituals and the nurse's role in supporting them (Singh & Freeman, 2011).

Slide 13: At the Moment of Death and After

• Family may wish to wash and dress the body
• Same-sex family members often perform care
• Autopsy is usually unwelcome unless required
• Release the body promptly for cremation

Speaker notes: Ask the family before you begin post-mortem care. Many will want to do it themselves. Cremation ideally happens soon after death, so coordinate early with the medical examiner if needed and with admitting so paperwork does not delay the family. A mourning period, often about thirteen days, follows at home.

Slide 14: Chaplaincy and Faith-Concordant Support

• Dharmic-faith patients used chaplains less: 31.6% vs. 36.7% (Patel et al., 2025)
• Ritual care was the most common spiritual need
• Offer the hospital chaplain and a community priest

Speaker notes: Patients of Dharmic religions in one cancer hospital were less familiar with chaplaincy and worried about faith-discordant care, though their spiritual needs were similar to others' (Patel et al., 2025). Tell families what a chaplain can do, and keep a list of local temples and priests who will come to the hospital.

Slide 15: Hospice: Barriers and Bridges

• Many South Asian young adults do not know the word hospice (Khosla, 2024)
• Concerns: cultural fit, a stranger in the home, constant reminders of death
• Bridge: describe services, not labels

Speaker notes: When Khosla asked 36 South Asian American college students about hospice, many rejected it after hearing what it involves, citing cultural incompatibility and a preference for dying at home (Khosla, 2024). Yet hospice is how many families achieve death at home. Describe what the team offers, pain control, a nurse who visits and help for the family, rather than leading with a word that carries fear.

Slide 16: Caring Across Faiths as a Christian Nurse

• We need not share a belief to honor it
• Love does not insist on its own way (1 Corinthians 13:5)
• Presence is a gift in every tradition (O'Brien, 2018)

Speaker notes: Our group is Christian, and we asked how to serve families whose beliefs about death differ from ours. Paul describes a love that does not insist on its own way (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, 1 Corinthians 13:5). O'Brien (2018) describes the nurse's presence as a form of spiritual care that crosses traditions. Making room for a Hindu family's rites is that kind of love.

Slide 17: Review Questions

• 1. Why might a Hindu family ask for less sedating medication for a dying parent?
• 2. Name three practices a family may wish to perform before death.
• 3. What should a nurse ask on admission to support goals-of-care conversations?

Speaker notes: Take a moment to answer these. They map to Outcomes 1, 2 and 3.

Slide 18: Review Questions and Answers

• 1. Awareness at death is valued for spiritual reasons; treat pain while protecting alertness
• 2. Chanting, holy water and tulsi, sacred threads and images, family presence
• 3. Who speaks for the family, how much the patient wants to know, and whether a priest should be involved
• 4. Post-mortem care: ask first; family may wash the body; release promptly for cremation

Speaker notes: The fourth answer covers the question we asked aloud: what to do first after death. If you answered "ask the family," you met Outcome 2. Thank you for listening; we welcome your questions.

References

De Weyer, N., Lambaerts, J., & Broeckaert, B. (2026). Christian and Indian religions on palliative sedation: A scoping study. Annals of Palliative Medicine, 15(3), Article 47. https://doi.org/10.21037/apm-2025-aw-129

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Khosla, N. (2024). "It seems like a bad thing": US South Asian youths' perspectives about the use of hospice care. American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, 41(4), 383-390. https://doi.org/10.1177/10499091231180819

Khosla, N., Washington, K. T., Shaunfield, S., & Aslakson, R. (2017). Communication challenges and strategies of U.S. health professionals caring for seriously ill South Asian patients and their families. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 20(6), 611-617. https://doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2016.0167

O'Brien, M. E. (2018). Spirituality in nursing: Standing on holy ground (6th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Patel, R. V., Bowden, J. M., Boselli, D., Strahley, A. E., Gibbs, S. L., Murali, K. P., Patel, V. R., Kotecha, R. R., & Nelson, J. E. (2025). Utilization and perceptions of chaplaincy among hospitalized adults of Dharmic religions with cancer. Cancer, 131(7), Article e35797. https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.35797

Patel, R. V., Bowden, J. M., Boselli, D., Strahley, A. E., Gibbs, S. L., Murali, K. P., Patel, V. R., Patel, A., Kotecha, R. R., & Nelson, J. E. (2026). Palliative care and EOL care utilization in hospitalized adults of Dharmic religions with cancer. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 72(5), 581-592. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2026.07.028

Sharma, R. K., Khosla, N., Tulsky, J. A., & Carrese, J. A. (2012). Traditional expectations versus US realities: First- and second-generation Asian Indian perspectives on end-of-life care. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 27(3), 311-317. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-011-1890-7

Singh, A., & Freeman, M. (2011). The important role for nurses in supporting the Asian Hindu patient and family at end of life: Providing culturally sensitive end-of-life care. Canadian Oncology Nursing Journal, 21(1), 46-49.

Thamanam, N., Lehwaldt, D., Sweeney, M. R., & Corbally, M. (2025). Measuring undergraduate nursing students' knowledge of Christian, Islamic, and Hindu death rituals: A national study. Nurse Education Today, 151, Article 106691. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2025.106691