This article proposes a model that conceptualizes health professionals' reactions to the multiple deaths of their patients, in terms of loss and grief. It suggests that grieving is both an individual and a social-interactive process that may be understood in terms of an ongoing fluctuation between experiencing grief reactions by focusing on the loss experience, and repressing or avoiding grief reactions by moving away from it. This fluctuation allows professionals to attribute meaning to the death of individual patients, and to transcend these losses by investing in life and living. The interaction between individual idiosyncratic factors ("life style") and environmental factors ("work style") is described in terms of how they affect the grieving process. Special consideration is given to the individual and collective forms of grieving, and to the role of team support.Over two decades have passed since the beginning of the modern hospice movement. Knowledge about the particular needs of the dying patient and the family have dramatically increased and specialized services have been developed to respond to those needs. Since early formulations of basic principles and assumptions underlying the standards for care of the terminally ill, special attention has been paid to the role of staff members and their involvement with patients. It was assumed that, "Good terminal care presupposes emotional investment on the part of the staff," who need "time and encouragement to develop and maintain relationships with patients and relatives" (International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement, 1979). It was, moreover, recognized that such commitment often produces emotional exhaustion and it was recommended that effective staff support systems be readily available for those who work with the terminally ill and the family.
The purpose of this transcultural descriptive study was to explore the subjective experiences of 63 oncology and critical care nurses who provide care to dying children in Greece and Hong Kong. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 39 Greek and 24 Chinese nurses who described their experiences and responses to the dying process and death of children. The data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively, and nurses' responses were compared for their work setting (oncology versus critical care) and their ethnic background (Greek versus Chinese). Findings revealed that most nurses experience a sense of helplessness when caring for a dying patient and difficulties in their communication with the child and parents during the terminal phase of the disease. The large majority acknowledge that the impending or actual death of a patient elicits a grieving process, which is characterized by a fluctuation between experiencing and avoiding loss and grief. Greek and Chinese nurses differ in their expression of their grief and how they attribute meaning to childhood death. Despite the suffering caused by multiple deaths, nurses report significant rewards from caring for chronically and acutely ill children, and the majority are satisfied with their job, despite the difficulties they encounter, in both countries, mostly as a result of shortage in personnel and cooperation problems with physicians.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.