Dr Nicki Fouché

My speciality is in critical care nursing, also known as ICU nursing. My PhD was about critical care and pedagogy and sparked my interest in end-of-life care, death education and death and dying. This is still a minimally explored area in nursing curricula and research, despite nurses regularly witnessing death within their work. This became more apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic where nurses were experiencing increased trauma related to witnessing a high number of painful deaths in the ICU but were not equipped or supported to process this.

I am also interested in the philosophy of phenomenology as it pertains to nursing and have supervised many students using this approach. More recently I am supervising studies that investigate nurses caring for nurse-patients as a neglected group within studies that explore death and dying.  I believe that death is very intimate and although the topic remains a taboo, including this topic with nurse education and research holds potential to help us understand multiple religious and cultural perspectives that will equip nurses with emotional and spiritual skills to navigate this experience. I am currently exploring the feasibility of a Postgraduate Diploma in Palliative Nursing and hope this will improve death and dying support in our health systems and for populations in remote settings.

Qualifications:

Diploma General Nursing Distinction.

Diploma in Midwifery.

Diploma Intensive Nursing Science Distinction.

Advanced University Diploma Nursing Education.

Master of Science (Nursing).

Doctor of Philosophy (Education).

Publications: (Last 5 years)

de Swardt, C, & Fouché, N. (2017). “What happens behind the curtains?” An exploration of ICU nurses’ experiences of post mortem care on patients who have died in intensive care. Intensive and Critical Care Nursing, 43, 118-115.

Fouché, N. (2019) A contemporary review of understanding the religious and cultural diversity of patients dying or who have died in the intensive care unit. A South African perspective. International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences, 10, 61-67.

Fuzy, E; Clow,S: & Fouché, N (2020). ‘Please treat me like a person’—respectful care during adolescent childbirth. British Journal of Midwifery, June 2020, Vol 28, No 6.

Using a Delphi study to guide for the development of an indicator tool for Palliative Care in South Africa. Krause R, Barnard A, Burger H, De Vos A, Evans K, Farrant L, Fouché N, Kalula S, Morgan J, Mohamed Z, Panieri E, Ras T, Raubenheimer P, Verburg E, Boyd K, Gwyther L. (2022). A Delphi study to guide the development of a clinical indicator tool for palliative care in South Africa. Afr J Prim Health Care Fam Med. 2022 19;14(1):e1-e7. doi: 10.4102/phcfm.v14i1.3351. PMID: 35695438; PMCID: PMC9210161.

Nurses’ Experiences of Caring for Dying Patients with End Stage Kidney Disease (ESKD) following Withdrawal of Dialysis–A South African Perspective. International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences, 100460.

Fouché, N. A., Bidii, D. B., & De Swardt, C. (2022). An Exploration of Nephrology

Mayers, P, Mobara, & Fouché, N. The Lived Experience of Muslims living with a Stoma in relation to their Cultural and Religious Practices in Cape Town, South Africa. Submitted and accepted 2023 to Journal of Wound, Ostomy, and Incontinence Nursing.

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0676-8745