Understanding Grief During The Hands Of Caring Nurses

Bereavement and loss - The loss of a loved one such as a parent, sibling, grandparent or friend can turn a child’s world upside down. Grief can bring all sorts of emotions, upset, sadness, hurt and anger because they are gone and, fear because the child may be afraid of other loved ones dying too. A child can be affected by grief for a long period of time, and this may impact on their emotional and physical

One of the concepts that people do not understand about grief and loss is the general idea of what it is and how it impacts people. According to Teen Health and Wellness’s article “Grief and Loss: Experiencing Loss,” is what happens when you no longer have something or someone that was extremely significant in your life, and the emotions that result are very real to you. You are entitled to these emotions. Many experts believe that the best thing for a person grieving to do is to let themselves feel sad. Lattanzi-Licht writes, common symptoms of grief are: “guilt or anger; restlessness; a sense of unreality about the loss; difficulty sleeping, eating and concentrating; mood changes; a loss of energy; constant thoughts of the

This paper examines the implications of grief, bereavement and disenfranchised grief. Grief in response to a loss is a unique experience and is expressed distinctively by every individual. It is helpful to have models that outline the stages of grief that need to be experienced in order to achieve acceptance. However, their utility is limited by the reality that grief is immeasurably complex and individualized. Veterans and children are two groups at risk of developing disenfranchised grief. Therefore, it will be important for nurses to be able to identify those suffering with disenfranchised grief or other forms of maladaptive grief so appropriate intervention may be employed.

Losing a loved one can be very painful, emotional and overwhelming. The difficult part after losing a loved one is learning how to cope with the loss. In order for nurses to help individuals cope with a loss of a loved one it is important for them to understand the grief process. This paper will define and explain the bereavement role, disenfranchised grief, four tasks of mourning and how nurses can help bereaved individuals with these processes.

Death is a universally experienced phenomenon. In the United States alone, over 2.6 million people die each year (Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2015). For practitioners, it is of utmost importance to better understand the process of grief to develop better interventions for bereaved individuals.

Individuals enter nursing with a wide array of experiences in how they grieve the loss of someone or something. These experiences follow them into their career and express themselves in the way they grieve for the loss of a patient. Evidence shows that this has historically been inadequate and unhealthy. To prevent the negative impact that ineffective grieving has upon the individual the approach to the grieving process must change. In doing so nurses will become more emotionally and physically stable while going through these difficult times, ultimately helping the healthcare institution to thrive.

Grief and loss are one of the most universal human experiences, though painful, and understandably causes distress. However, approximately 15 % experience a more problematic grieving process with elevated symptoms of depression and/or posttraumatic stress symptoms (Bonanno and Kaltman, 1999).There is no well-established model of the timeline for resolution of grief and the variance of its expression is wide. Many persons cope with the emotional pain of bereavement without any formal intervention. However, individuals who have experienced traumatic bereavement, such as deaths that are sudden, violent, or due to human actions (Green 2000), may face particular challenges. Researchers have tried to define a model for the treatment of traumatic bereavement that fully supports not only the client, but also those working with the clients around their trauma

“Children’s responses to grief fluctuate according to their concepts of death, their developmental level, and the way they related to the person now dead.” (Grollman, pg. 49) When the child is going through grief, they usually go through three phases: protest, pain and hope. Some children may not be able to stop crying while others are emotionless. Grieving is different for children and adults.

The purpose of this journal is to examine the core concept of “Grief and Loss” in a patient that I cared for in a previous clinical. This clinical experience will represent this core concept and identify any discrepancies or inconsistencies that can be modified and incorporated to the nursing process. Consistencies will be researched based on articles, clinical experience, and our textbook. Inconsistencies will be analyzed by using our PICOT research. A summary with explored research will be discussed with options to incorporate into future nursing practice.

Grief is the act following the loss of a loved one. While grief and bereavement are normal occurrences, the grief process is a social construct of how someone should behave. The acceptable ways that people grieve change because of this construct. For a time it was not acceptable to grieve; today, however, it is seen as a necessary way to move on from death (Scheid, 2011).The grief process has been described as a multistage event, with each stage lasting for a suggested amount of time to be considered “normal” and reach resolution. The beginning stage of grief is the immediate shock, disbelief, and denial lasting from hours to weeks (Wambach, 1985). The middle stage is the acute mourning phase that can include somatic and emotional turmoil. This stage includes acknowledging the event and processing it on various levels, both mentally and physically. The final stage is a period of

Overview: University of Kansas, article entitled: Creating a curtain of protection: nurses’ experiences of grief following patient death. This title was clear and unambiguous suggesting the key phenomenon under study. Too long or too short titles can be confusing or misleading (Parahoo, 2006), however, this title contained few words which adequately described the contents and purpose of the paper being studied. The abstract provided a succinct overview of the research, it brought out the main features of the report and included relevant information. It captivated my interest which motivated me to continue reading. This paper is a qualitative research written by L. Gerow and colleagues. In this study eleven registered nurses were interviewed using semi-structured interviews and phenomenology concepts. Audio-tapes and demographic questionnaires were also used. The data was analysed using methods of Heideggerian hermeneutical analysis and Van Manen’s progression. The purpose was to describe the lived experiences of nurses surrounding patient’s death. It entails how nurses deal with such situation differently by creating a curtain of protection to mitigate the grieving process allowing them to continue providing supportive nursing care. The aim was to investigate nurses’ grief to develop

Nader and Salloum (2011) made clear that, at different ages, children differ in their understanding of the universality, inevitability, unpredictability, irreversibility, and causality of death. They believed, despite the increasing understanding with age of the physical aspects of death, a child may simultaneously hold more than one idea about the characteristics of death. However, factors that complete the determining nature of childhood grieving across different age groups may be a difficult task for a number of reasons including their environment in means of the support they have available, the child’s nature in terms of their personality, genetics, and gender, coping skills and previous experiences, the developmental age, grieving style, whether or not therapy was received, and the relationship to the deceased (Nader & Salloum, 2011). Crenshaw (2005) found that according to our current understanding of childhood traumatic grief and normal grief, thoughts and images of a traumatic nature are so terrifying, horrific, and anxiety provoking that they cause the child to avoid and shut out these thoughts and images that would be comforting reminders of the person who died. The distressing and intrusive images, reminders, and thoughts of the traumatic circumstances of the death, along with the physiological hyper-arousal associated with such re-experiencing, prevent the child from proceeding in a healthy way with the grieving process (Crenshaw, 2005). McClatchy, Vonk, and

This is a concept analysis on the experiences of grief of registered nurses in the fields of oncology, pediatric ICU and adult ICU after a patient dies. The paper describes the reactions of nurses and how they are able to cope with grief. It also discussed the available resources that they use within their institution in response to the death of the patient. The concept analysis method that was used was based on: epistemological, pragmatic, linguistic and logical principles. Extensive literature search was done to review the concept mentioned. The need to recognize the grief of nurses after patient death

The loss of a loved one is a very crucial time where an individual can experience depression, somatic symptoms, grief, and sadness. What will be discussed throughout this paper is what the bereavement role is and its duration, as well as the definition of disenfranchised grief and who experiences this type of grief. I will also touch upon the four tasks of mourning and how each bereaved individual must accomplish all four tasks before mourning can be finalized. Lastly, with each of these topics, nursing implications will be outlined on how to care for bereaved individuals and their families.

In the United States approximately 73,000 children die in United States each year, of which 83% have siblings. These sibling will suffer feelings of grief that are similar to those of adults, however their developmental changes their grieving process and expressions of grief. These differences can make supporting these children more challenging for adults, especially for parents that are already emotionally and physically exhausted from their own grief.