GRIEF IN NURSING

Grief in Nursing

Grief in Nursing

Introduction

Grieving is a human experience. The research literature of nursing contains multiple references on grief and bereavement, signifying their importance to the nursing profession and the delivery of care. Clarification of the concept of grief would assist in comprehending this unique human response. The intent of this researcher was to suggest that grief, as conceptualized in the professional literature, is not adequate to foster understanding of the human experience of grief or to support nursing humanistic purpose of caring for people who are grieving. Further, this researcher argues that a reformulation of the concept of grief as an endless life process is needed for guiding nursing care. An analysis of the research literature of nursing revealed strong reliance on the disciplines of psychology, sociology, and medicine for an explanation of the concept of grief. Typically, grief is defined as a response to loss and death and is organized by steps, stages, or phases that portray grief as a sequential, self-limiting process that is bound by the dimension of time and requires closure for resolution.

Significance

Although the study of grief has widespread implications for the health professions and the general public, this research paper focuses on the significance of grief for nursing.

Discussion

The way grief is conceptualized is key to the way nurses care for grieving Individuals and families. Practice rests on clarity in concepts that serve to organize and direct nursing care. Clinical knowledge is one way of extending theory in light of practice, and research provides the link between theory and practice. But the grief of another is impossible to comprehend fully. Nurses confront others experiencing grief related to a multitude of significant losses. This frequency of experience enables nurses to perceive patterns and behaviors that reoccur and may be shared. Yet it is crucial to understand and accept the uniqueness of each individual's experience as nurses strive to provide individualistic and compassionate care. Grief and the Nursing Process The Standards of Clinical Nursing Practice (American Nurses Association,1991) specify 'Standards of Care(p. 2) that describe a competent level of nursing care as demonstrated by the nursing process, involving assessment, diagnosis, outcome identification, planning, implementation and evaluation. 'The nursing process encompasses all significant actions taken by nurses in providing care to all clients, and forms the foundation of clinical decision making (American Nurses Association, 1991, pp. 2-3). The nursing process is applied in clinical situations to provide the highest level of quality care. In the situation of grieving people, the application of the nursing process rests on the structure of knowledge about grief. Given a reformulation of grief as a life process representing the dynamic, individual nature of the experience of loss, the nursing process requires reconsiaeration. Benoliel (1985b) recognized the need for a reorientation of assessment as a process of data-gathering rather than a one-stop appraisal. The significance of loss and death as part of a person's history as well as the discovery of coping strategies for dealing with these experiences is ...