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- Title
A Phenomenological Study of Nurses' Experience of Grief Following Patient Death.
- Authors
Gerow, Lisa; Conejo, Patricia; Alonzo, Amanda; Davis, Nancy; Rodgers, Susan; Domian, Elaine
- Abstract
Registered nurses have long provided end-of-life care and support to patients and their families. As the baby boomer generation continues to age, nurses will be exposed to an increasing number of patient deaths. Understanding the grief experienced by nurses will facilitate effective support and coping mechanisms within the work environment. Although nursing leaders recognize that nurses experience grief when their patients die, there is little research about the experiences of nurses following the death of a patient. Nurses' training about the grief process is minimal and generally related to supportive interventions for patients and families. Education pertaining to the grief nurses may experience in caring for dying patients and their families is rare in nursing curricula. This qualitative study uses phenomenology to investigate the lived experience of nurses' grief resulting from the death of patients in their care. The participants for this study consist of 11 nurses recruited through purposive sampling. Nurses who have experienced the death of a patient were eligible to participate in the study. The investigators use semistructured interviews to learn about the feelings, beliefs, and emotions that nurses experience during the grief process and the coping mechanisms enacted by nurses during and after their care of the patient. Data are analyzed using methods of Heideggerian hermeneutical analysis and van Manen's progression. Four themes are identified: (a) reciprocal relationship transcends professional relationship, (b) early patient death event is formative, (c) nurse worldview influences coping response, and (d) remaining "professional" requires compartmentalizing of experience. Nurses create a curtain of protection to mitigate the grieving process and allow them to continue to provide supportive nursing care. Findings have relevance for nursing education and practice to promote effective nurse coping, healthy practice environments, and to decrease the loss of nurses in the workforce due to burnout resulting from unresolved grief.
- Subjects
NURSING psychology
- Publication
Western Journal of Nursing Research, 2009, Vol 31, Issue 8, p1078
- ISSN
0193-9459
- Publication type
Abstract
- DOI
10.1177/0193945909342243