The grieving process: a pending subject in nursing
Section: TEACHING TO LEARN
Authors
1Mª José Benavente Sanguino, 2María del Carmen Gallardo Berrocal, 3José Miguel Gracia Fuentes, 3Adela Méndez Zama, 4Julia Hidalgo Ortega, 5M Morgado Villaverde
Position
1Directora EUE de la Comunidad. Hospital Infanta Cristina Badajoz.2Enfermera técnico de la Dirección General de Asistencia Sanaitaria de Extremadura.3Enfermera de la Unidad de Oncología HU Infanta Cristina de Badajoz.4Supervisora de la Unidad de Oncología HU Infanta Cristina de Badajoz.5Profesora EUE de Badajoz.
Contact email: Josefa.benavente@sc.juntaex.es
Abstract
The increasing number of patients with incurable diseases, the increased expectancy of life and the use of high technology extending survival in patients with terminal illness poses a dilemma to today’s society and to healthcare professionals in particular on what the best action is when faced with these limit situations.
Healthcare professionals are better prepared from a human and technical point of view to cure, administer drugs, and prolong life than to look after and help the individual and his or her family handle this final process with calmness, dignity and naturality. Nursing interventions oriented towards the patient and his or her family in these circumstances is a pending subject, either due to a lack of the information in terms of what is needed or due to a lack of guidelines or as per -protocol care plans or also due to a lack of interdisciplinary communication.
The Hospital Infanta Cristina de Badajoz usually admits 32,000 patients per year approximately, of which, one thousand correspond to the Oncology hospitalisation unit. The mortality rate represents a 15% of the total. In view of this situation, a need was detected to conduct a descriptive study with the aim of ascertaining the opinion of nurses on the convenience to write a guideline to follow in the care of these patients and their families and also to determine the quality of the care delivered.
The first results show the lacks mentioned at the beginning of this abstract but also the good predisposition of the professionals towards the information necessary to achieve optimal care of the patients and their families during the grieving process.
Healthcare professionals are better prepared from a human and technical point of view to cure, administer drugs, and prolong life than to look after and help the individual and his or her family handle this final process with calmness, dignity and naturality. Nursing interventions oriented towards the patient and his or her family in these circumstances is a pending subject, either due to a lack of the information in terms of what is needed or due to a lack of guidelines or as per -protocol care plans or also due to a lack of interdisciplinary communication.
The Hospital Infanta Cristina de Badajoz usually admits 32,000 patients per year approximately, of which, one thousand correspond to the Oncology hospitalisation unit. The mortality rate represents a 15% of the total. In view of this situation, a need was detected to conduct a descriptive study with the aim of ascertaining the opinion of nurses on the convenience to write a guideline to follow in the care of these patients and their families and also to determine the quality of the care delivered.
The first results show the lacks mentioned at the beginning of this abstract but also the good predisposition of the professionals towards the information necessary to achieve optimal care of the patients and their families during the grieving process.
Keywords:
grieving process; loss of a loved onepsychological support
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