Professional Documents
Culture Documents
TASKS OF GRIEVING
THE GRIEVING PROCESS • Grieving tasks, or mourning - it is sometimes
• Grief - refers to the subjective emotions and affect called “grief work” because it is difficult and requires
that are a normal response to the experience of loss. tremendous effort and energy to accomplish
• Grieving/bereavement - refers to the process by
which a person experiences the grief.
INTERVENTIONS
Exploring the Perception of Loss:
• First step that can help alleviate the pain of what
some would call the initial emotional overload in
grieving.
• The nurse might ask what being alone means to the
person and explore the possibility of others being
• Later in the shift, the nurse finds Ms. Morrison hitting supportive
her pillow and crying. She has eaten little food and • It is particularly important that the nurse listens to
has refused visitors whatever emotions the person expresses, even if the
nurse doesn’t “agree” with the feelings.
• It is essential to accept the person’s feelings without
trying to dissuade them from feeling angry or upset.
• The nurse needs to encourage the person to express
any and all feelings without trying to calm or placate
them.
• Effective communication skills can be useful in
helping the client in adaptive denial move toward
acceptance.
NURSING INTERVENTIONS
For Grief
• Explore client’s perception and meaning of his or her
loss
• Allow adaptive denial
• Encourage or assist client to reach out for and accept
support
• Encourage client to examine patterns of coping in
part and present situation of loss
• Encourage client to review personal strengths and
Obtaining Support: personal power
• The nurse can help the client to reach out and accept • Encourage client to care for himself or herself
what others want to give in support of his or her • Offer client food without pressure to eat
grieving process. Note the assessment is • Use effective communication
developed into a plan for support. ➢ Offer presence and give broad openings
➢ Use open-ended questions
Scenario and dialogue: ➢ Encourage description
• Many Internet resources are available to nurses who ➢ Share observations
want to help a client find information, support groups, ➢ Use reflection
and activities related to the grieving process. ➢ Seek validation of perceptions
➢ Provide information
➢ Voice doubt
➢ Use focusing
➢ Attempt to translate into feelings or
verbalize the implied
• Establish rapport and maintain interpersonal skills
such as
➢ Attentive presence
➢ Respect for client’s unique grieving process
Promoting Coping Behaviors:
➢ Respect for client’s personal beliefs
• Give the client the opportunity to compare and ➢ Being trustworthy: honest, dependable,
contrast ways in which he or she has coped with consistent
significant loss in the past, and helping him or her to ➢ Periodic self-inventory of attitudes and
review strengths and renew a sense of personal issues related to loss
power.
• Encourage the client to care for himself or herself.
EVALUATIONS
The nurse can offer food without pressuring the client
• Evaluation of progress depends on the goals
to eat.
established for the client.
• Encourage the client to go back to a routine of work
• A review of the tasks and phases of grieving can be
or focusing on other members of the family may
useful in making a statement about the client’s status
provide that respite.
at any given moment.
• Encourage volunteer activities—volunteering at a
• The nurse may say the client is still experiencing
hospice or botanical garden, taking part in church
denial or outcry emotions. Or that the client is
activities, or speaking to bereavement education
showing signs of reorganization, recovery, or
groups
healing.
SUMMARY
• Grief refers to the subjective emotions and affect that
are normal responses to the experience of loss.
• Grieving is the process by which a person
experiences grief.
• Types of losses can be identified as unfulfilled or
unmet human needs. Maslow’s hierarchy of human
needs is a useful model to understand loss as it
relates to unfulfilled human needs.
• Grief work is one of life’s most difficult challenges.
The challenge of integrating a loss requires all that
the person can give of mind, body, and spirit.
• Because the nurse constantly interacts with clients at
various points on the health–illness continuum, he or
she must understand loss and the process of
grieving.
• The process of grieving has been described by many
theorists including Kubler-Ross, Bowlby, Engel, and
Horowitz.
• Dimensions of human response include cognitive,
emotional, spiritual, behavioral, and physiologic.
People may be experiencing more than one phase of
the grieving process at a time.
• Culturally bound reactions to loss are often lost in the
acculturation to dominant societal norms. Both
universal and culture-specific rituals facilitate
grieving.
• Disenfranchised grief often involves deaths,
mourners, or situations that are not socially
supported or sanctioned, or carry a stigma for the
mourners.
• Complicated grieving is a response that lies outside
the norm. The person may be void of emotion, grieve
for a prolonged period, or express feelings that seem
out of proportion.
• Low self-esteem, distrust of others, a psychiatric
disorder, previous suicide threats or attempts, and
absent or unhelpful family members increase the risk
of complicated grieving.
• Situations considered risk factors for complicated
grief in those already vulnerable include death of a
spouse or child, a sudden unexpected death, and
murder. During assessment, the nurse observes and
listens for cues in what the person thinks and feels
and how he or she behaves, and then uses these
relevant data to guide the client in the grieving
process.