A comfortable place to say goodbye.

No death is easy, but we hope to die peacefully, with our loved ones surrounding us, comforted by each other's presence and the knowledge that the right decision has been made. The nurse's actions in the intensive care unit setting can promote hope for a comfortable place to say goodbye for the patient and his/her loved ones and the nursing staff and physicians. When nurses make the intensive care unit a comfortable place for the dying patients and their loved ones, we also make the patients' deaths comfortable for us. The problems encountered in implementing end-of-life care are explored in this article, as well as strategies to instill hope in families.