Patients, family caregivers, and palliative care advanced practice registered nurses themselves will experience grief and bereavement throughout a palliative care encounter. Palliative care nurses will encounter a myriad of grief-related experiences, including loss of independence and functioning, role strain or changes, disruption in relationships, and the death of an individual. To expertly manage grief and bereavement, the advanced practice nurse should understand common terms including loss, grief, and bereavement; be able to identify normal grief from complicated bereavement; know when to refer patients for psychiatric services; and employ strategies for self-care. This chapter provides a review of grief theories, essential assessment components, and strategies for supportive counseling and mental health referrals.
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.