Research Paper Grief and Coping Strategies of Nurses Following Patient Death at the Konongo-Odumasi Government Hospital, Ghana (original) (raw)
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Journal of Client-centered Nursing Care
Background: Nurses working in various patient care departments are exposed to different traumatic situations, patient suffering, and death in their routine care. This study investigated grief and coping experiences amongst registered nurses working in various care departments of a major government health facility in the Ashanti region of Ghana. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey amongst nurses was conducted. A quota-sampling technique was applied to yield a representative sample of 79 nurses working in different wards of Konongo-Odumasi Government Hospital in Konong, Ghana. A structured self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Standard descriptive statistics (e.g. frequency and proportions) were used to summarize the survey data. The data were analyzed using SPSS software, v. 20. Results: The majority of nurses (63%) reported feelings of grief following the death of patients they had cared for. Most respondents (89%) who did not acknowledge a grief ex...
Hospice and Palliative Medicine International Journal
Nurses encounter death more than most. Death is inevitable and also a reality of life that everyone has to deal with. This descriptive research aimed to assess the coping of staff nurses utilizing the developed Coping Interventional Tool for Nurses (CIT-N).1 A total of 51 staff nurses from two-respondent hospitals were selected based on the set criteria. Later, the study revealed that majority of the staff nurses, in both respondent hospitals, were observed to be high in their coping after losing patients. In addition, there is no significant difference between their assessed coping. For Hospital A, delivering their nursing care to the dying patients with utmost professionalism and believing that acceptance plays a vital role in the process commonly contributed in their coping after losing patients. For Hospital B, it is still grateful that their rendered nursing services adds to the quality of life towards the peaceful death of the dying patients.
Grief reactions and coping strategies of Muslim nurses dealing with death
Nursing in Critical Care, 2019
Background: An intensive care unit (ICU) features high mortality rates. Witnessing subsequent deaths may affect nurses psychologically and spiritually. Islam has an influence on Muslims' life and death. Nevertheless, little is known about Muslim intensive care nurses' experiences of grief in dealing with the deaths of patients. Aim and objectives: This study aimed to describe the grief reactions and coping strategies of Muslim nurses in dealing with the death of patients. Design: This is a qualitative study with a phenomenological approach. Methods: Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted. Fourteen participants from an ICU in an Indonesian tertiary public hospital participated in this study. Data were analysed by thematic analysis. Trustworthiness was established by Lincoln and Guba's criteria. Results: The findings identified four reactions of grief, four factors influencing reactions of grief, and three coping strategies used in dealing with death in an ICU. The reactions of nurse's grief were crying, being sad, feeling disappointed, and feeling guilty. These reactions were related to several factors including the circumstances of the patient's death, nurse's expectation of patient's recovery, relationships with the patient, and the reactions of family. Coping management strategies used by nurses in dealing with their grief comprised: sharing with colleagues, avoiding dying and death situations, and engaging in spirituality. Conclusions: The Muslim ICU nurse participants experienced their grieving through a variety of psychological reactions influenced by several factors. Personal coping strategies were revealed in dealing with their grief. However, avoiding dying and death situations affected their duty. Relevance to Clinical Practice: Attention to nurses' grief should be paid to maintain their psychological well-being and quality of end-of-life care. Providing formal support to enhance grief management is recommended. K E Y W O R D S bereavement, grief, intensive care, intensive care nurses, qualitative research 1 | INTRODUCTION An intensive care unit (ICU) is the unit in a hospital that offers intensive medical and nursing care for critically ill patients. 1 Even though the ICU is expected to sustain life, ICUs usually have high mortality rates resulting in ICU nurses having to deal with many deaths of patients. According to the Society of Critical Care Medicine, 2 mortality rates of patients admitted in ICU average 10%-29% around the world. In Indonesia, the mortality rate in an ICU was reported as 40.2%. 3 Grief is defined as a response to a loss or bereavement. 4,5 Dealing with multiple patient deaths was reported to affect nurses physically and psychologically. 6 However, nurses' experience of grief is not
Feelings and Emotions of Nurses Related to Dying and Death of Patients – A Pilot Study
Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 2021
The aim of the study, conducted in selected inpatient units, was to evaluate and analyse the feelings and emotions which accompany nurses during their work when they face the death of patients. Material and Methods: A total of 160 nurses were invited to participate in the study. The study group consisted of 40 nurses from each of the four departments of a municipal hospital: a surgery unit, an internal medicine unit, a hospital emergency department (ER) and an intensive care unit (ICU). A diagnostic survey method was used, including a questionnaire on sociodemographic data as well as questions designed by the author of the research related to the feelings of nurses provoked by the death of patients. To assess the level of anxiety and the ways of coping with stress related to contact with dying patients, Mini-COPE and PSS-10 questionnaires were used. Results: Compassion, sadness and helplessness are the most common types of nurses' emotions caused by the death of patients, regardless of the nurses' length of service and the place of work. In the study group, 53.90% of participants experienced a high level of stress. The level of anxiety in nurses from the internal medicine ward was significantly higher than in the nurses from the intensive care unit and the emergency department. The way of coping with stress is related to the period of service and the workplace of nurses. Conclusion: Nurses experience a high level of stress and strong emotions triggered by the observation of dying patients. Various styles of coping with stress can be noticed depending on job seniority and a place of employment. Due to the emotions evoked by the necessity to deal with death while performing professional duties, it is advisable to develop effective ways of coping in difficult situations.
Nurses’ Experiences of Grief Following Patient Death: A Qualitative Approach
Journal of Holistic Nursing, 2017
Purpose: To explore the lived experiences of nurses’ feelings, emotions, grief reactions, and coping mechanisms following their patients’ death. Background: On a daily basis, nurses are experiencing patients’ death, which exposes them to grief. Nurses’ grief has not been sufficiently addressed in practice settings, although it has been a well-known threat to health and work performance. Design: A qualitative design guided by a phenomenological approach was adopted. Method: Data were collected from a purposive sample of 21 Jordanian nurses by conducting three focus groups and analyzed using Colaizzi’s framework. Findings: Four themes were generated in which participants reported feelings of grief following their patients’ death. Their grief emotions were reported as sadness, crying, anger, shock, denial, faith, fear, guilt, fear of the family’s reaction, and powerlessness. Conclusions: The study provided evidence that nurses respond emotionally to patients’ death and experience grief...
Muliira RS, et al: Nurses' experiences of patient death situations
Background: Impacts of regular occupational exposure and experience of patient death on nurses' professional quality of life and well-being. Despite the impacts, it has not yet been adequately addressed by professional training, research and by employers of nurses. Purpose: To analyze the impacts of occupational exposure, experience of patient death and death situations on nurses' professional quality of life and recommend strategies to curtail them. Methods: Studies were retrieved from three databases CINAHL, SCOPUS, MEDLINE and reference lists of relevant journal publications. Results: The findings show that the impact of experience of patient death on nurses positively or negatively depending on the way patient death is perceived (good or bad). The positive outcomes include increased professionalism, devotion to patient care, bonding with deceased patient's family members and individualized patient care. The negative impact may be short-term emotional reactions such as fear, severe grief, and self-doubt. The short-term adverse outcomes can initiate long-term consequences such as compassionate fatigue, burnout, and withdrawal from practice among nurses with inappropriate coping. Conclusion: Occupational exposure to death situations can adversely influence patient care and nurse's professional quality of life. Nurse educators, employers, and researchers should play a proactive role in enhancing nurse's knowledge, skills, and coping.
Exploration of nurse practitioner practice with clients who are grieving
Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 2009
Purpose: Nurse practitioners (NPs) have provided care to clients in primary care settings for more than 40 years. Although NP practice standards have identified grief as a health concern that needs to be addressed, little is known about the practice of NPs with this population. The purpose of this study was to describe the clinical practice of NPs in primary care with clients who were grieving the death of a significant person. Data sources: This descriptive exploratory qualitative study explored NPs' assessment, plan of care, and evaluation of healthcare outcomes for their clients who were grieving. Semi-structured audiotaped interviews with nine NPs providing primary care to clients were completed. The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Conclusions: The NPs' descriptions of their clinical practice yielded important information about their assessment, intervention, and evaluation of grieving clients. Descriptions of assessments by NPs provided important data that were categorized as physical complaints, overall functioning, and emotional wellbeing or coping. Descriptions of interventions included validation of clients' grief, prescriptions, and teaching or referral. Descriptions of outcomes included relief of physical complaints and stabilized chronic illness, improvements in overall functioning, and improvements in clients' emotional well-being and coping. Implications for practice: For NPs to be able to provide effective care to clients grieving the death of a loved one, they need a better understanding of theoretical models and current research related to grief. Further studies are needed to provide insight into the practice of NPs with this population.
Nursing Interventions in Primary Care for the Management of Maladaptive Grief: A Scoping Review
Nursing Reports, 2024
Grief is a natural and self-limited adaptation process to a new reality that emerges after a significant loss (whether real or perceived), with a broad variety of manifestations that exert an impact on a grieving person’s health. The study aim was to synthesize the evidence available about the interventions carried out by Primary Health Care nurses, by means of an individual approach to reduce maladaptive grief or maladaptive grief risk. A scoping review was conducted (November and December 2023) through searches in Medline, Cinahl, Web of Science, ProQuest and Scopus using MeSH terms combined with Booleans. Primary research of any design in adult people undergoing grief situations and receiving professional assistance by nurses in the primary, home and community care contexts published after 2009 in English, Spanish or Portuguese languages were included. Excluded publications were those conducted in in-hospital clinical settings and which did not correspond to research designs or the gray literature. The screening process was carried out by two reviewers using the appropriate JBI critical appraisal tools for each design and discrepancies were resolved by a third reviewer. A total of n = 10 studies were included (n = 4 qualitative, n = 2 ECAs, n = 1 quasi-experimental, n = 2 cross-sectional observational, and n = 2 mixed methods). The qualitative studies identified topics and subtopics of professionals’ and families’ experiences of grief. The observational studies analyzed symptoms and factors associated with the grieving process. Interventions consisted of cognitive–behavioral therapies delivered by psychological specialists who assessed the severity of grief in a range of cultural contexts using different instruments. The evidence retrieved from the studies that address the reduction in maladaptive grief or maladaptive grief risk is not conclusive. There is a need to increase both the number and the methodological quality of studies assessing the effectiveness of Nursing care in Primary Health Care for individuals experiencing maladaptive grief or maladaptive grief risk. Further research should focus on experimental studies, developing specific interventions conducted by nurses to address individual’s grief and prevent maladaptive grief.