In three separate studies, this thesis examined stress and coping in nurse practitioners during first time exposure to post-mortem care. Using a self report questionnaire and a retrospective design, Study 1 (N=97) examined the nurse's first experience administering post-mortem care to the recently deceased. The results obtained from this exploratory investigation established that many nurses reported significant distress and used emotion-focused coping strategies (avoidance and palliation) to manage the experience. These data are consistent with those reported by others who have researched in the area, and support the hypotheses that first time exposure to post-mortem care can induce significant distress in some nurses, and that the memory is vividly recalled many years after the event. The second study used a prospective design. Base line data were collected prior to the nurse performing post-mortem care (N=59), 24 hours after they participated in their first post-mortem care procedure, and 1 and 5 weeks post-event. The General Health Questionnaire-28, the Revised Ways of Coping Checklist, the Revised Collett-Lester Fear of Death and Dying Scale, and the Impact of Event Scale were used to obtain data which were compared with that of a control group (N=59) of nurses undertaking an academic examination. The results confirmed that beginning nurse practitioners resort to using predominantly emotion-focused coping strategies when faced with stressful life events. Moreover, a direct linear relationship between the participants' fear of death and dying scores and the way they rated the impact of performing post-mortem care was found. Colaizzi's (1978) method of data analysis was used in the third and final study in the series (N=6) that explored the lived experience of nurses performing post-mortem care. The essence of the first experience was embedded in six key themes that structured the lived experience. Psychic disorganisation was experienced by the participants because they were unprepared both psychologically and educationally to deal with the experience and resorted to using emotion-focused coping strategies. It is concluded that nurses' first exposure to post-mortem care procedures is stressful and they use predominately emotion focused coping strategies to deal with the experience.