The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has recognized the need to guide nurses and healthcare assistants about how to deal with patients who talk to them about dying.

It is imperative for nurses to hear what patients have to say about their feelings without being scared that their actions might be misinterpreted as helping the patient to take their lives.

Patients and relatives have ended up making wrong decisions because there was no one to listen to their plight and guide them to do the right thing.

Helping someone to commit suicide is illegal and nurses are afraid that if they listen to patients who start talking about dying could make them liable for punishment. It is because of this that nurses avoid making any conversation on this topic.

Guidance from RCN on assisted suicide is prevalent in Wales, Scotland and England. It says that talking to patients about assisted dying could send them to prison. Also, they could face prosecution if they are found discussing any aspect of euthanasia with a patient who commits suicide.

The guidelines also say that it is illegal to offer information on assisted dying, including contact details for Dignitas clinics in Switzerland.

The guidelines were formed when nurses said that there were many instances where patients and relatives had been asking for advice about pulling the plug.

Most nurses were left wondering about how they would tackle the situation. The guidelines explain that if a terminally ill patient solicits information about dying, nurses should clearly convey to the patient that they could not do anything to help. Instead, nurses should ask the patient what they could do to make the patient more comfortable and whether the patient would like to die at home.

There are instructions for doctors, by the British Medical Association, already. Nurses can help patients write living wills that include requests to refuse life – saving treatment.