Patient death is far too common among healthcare providers, especially nurses; yet little attention is given to equip staff to cope once death occurs (Granek, Bartels, Barrera, and Scheinemann, 2015). Many professionals employ a mix of physical, emotional, spiritual, and problem solving strategies to promote wellbeing (Forster and Hafiz, 2015). This paper will explore a few of the many coping strategies identified by healthcare professionals related to the death of a patient, including peer support, personal coping strategies, family support, and other methods that are emerging in recent years. In addition, it is prudent to identify the signs and symptoms associated with ineffective coping as well as the underlying contributing factors associated with coping with patient death.
The most common strategy to dealing with the death of a patient was …show more content…
Perhaps the most prevalent is the lack of training and education clinicians are provided both to cope personally and initiate coping for family members of the deceased (Forster and Hafiz, 2015). It is possible for many clinicians to feel additional stress related to death due to the lack of feedback from the family regarding the support provided (Forster and Hafiz, 2015). Clinicians do not always have the educational preparedness to provide support and are even less likely to seek feedback from family that are grieving (Forster and Hafiz, 2015). Many times nurses are not clear of their role in the death/dying process, which can further increase the stress of a situation resulting in an increased need for staff coping strategies (Bloomer, et al, 2013). In addition, the realization that not all nurses can communicate well with relatives results in seasoned nurses being assigned terminal patients more frequently increasing their exposure to dying patients, and thereby increasing the amount of job related stress (Bloomer, et.al,
The most common strategy to dealing with the death of a patient was …show more content…
Perhaps the most prevalent is the lack of training and education clinicians are provided both to cope personally and initiate coping for family members of the deceased (Forster and Hafiz, 2015). It is possible for many clinicians to feel additional stress related to death due to the lack of feedback from the family regarding the support provided (Forster and Hafiz, 2015). Clinicians do not always have the educational preparedness to provide support and are even less likely to seek feedback from family that are grieving (Forster and Hafiz, 2015). Many times nurses are not clear of their role in the death/dying process, which can further increase the stress of a situation resulting in an increased need for staff coping strategies (Bloomer, et al, 2013). In addition, the realization that not all nurses can communicate well with relatives results in seasoned nurses being assigned terminal patients more frequently increasing their exposure to dying patients, and thereby increasing the amount of job related stress (Bloomer, et.al,