Grief in Critical Care Nurses after Pediatric Suffering and Death
Adaptation; Pediatric Terminal Care; Psychological; Child; Critical Care; Female; Grief; Humans; Intensive Care Units
BACKGROUND: Working in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) exposes nurses to intense and recurrent experiences with loss. Such experiences may result in unresolved grief or despair among these providers. Although previous studies have explored grief within the nursing profession, few have focused on grief following the death of children in the PICU, where sudden or traumatic deaths are more frequent. The aim of this study was to characterize the degree to which pediatric critical care (PCC) nurses experience symptoms of grief or distress following the suffering and/or death of a patient in the PICU. METHODS: An email invited PICU nurses at a large free standing children's hospital to complete an online survey with demographic questions and an open-ended, qualitative question about grief experiences. Research team members coded open-ended responses, using thematic content analysis. Final themes were further validated via member checking. RESULTS: Of the 104 participants, most were Caucasian (96.3%), female (97%), bedside (83.5%) nurses with a bachelor's degree (85.4%). Participants had variable years of experience and included both day (59.6%) and night (40.4%) shift nurses. After detailed analysis, the research team identified four major themes among pediatric critical care (PCC) nurses when asked about grief symptoms and distress following the suffering or death of a patient in the PICU: (I) continuum of emotional responses; (II) emotional prompts; (III) coping, and (IV) resilience. CONCLUSIONS: Many PICU nurses were profoundly affected by the death of their patients, while others offered strategies that fostered resilience. Understanding the impact of repeated loss on these specialized nurses may inform the development of more effective grief and bereavement support programs for healthcare providers.
Groves KA; Adewumi A; Gerhardt CA; Skeens MA; Suttle ML
Annals of Palliative Medicine
2022
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.21037/apm-21-3225">10.21037/apm-21-3225</a>
Inequities in Pediatric Palliative Care: Where Are the Consults?*
barrier; health; medicine; social life; pediatrics; communication; quality; relationship; palliative; Caucasian of Hispanic; competence; editorial; human; consultation; therapy; race; access; disparity; care; patient; personnel; equity; utilization; intensive; Black; cultural; difference; person; racism; bias; cell; doctor; English; ethnic; exclusion; implicit; limited; multilingualism; proficiency; racial; stem; transplant
acial and ethnic inequities are well documented in medicine (1). Patients from historically marginalized groups have consistently reported medical mistrust, poor communication, and perceived discrimination as barriers to the care that they receive (2,3). Pediatrics is no exception with racial and ethnic differences noted in the treatment of numerous conditions, including cancer and conditions treated in the PICU (4,5).
Pediatric palliative care (PPC) is a specialty that strives to prevent or ease distress while maximizing quality of life for children with life-threatening conditions, as well as their families, throughout the trajectory of a child’s illness (6). Though PPC is not specific to end of life (EOL), the utilization of these resources at EOL leads to improved outcomes for families (6). In children who undergo hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), PPC is associated with less intervention-focused care and greater opportunity for improved EOL communication and advance preparation (6). [...]
Suttle ML
Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
2022
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1097/PCC.0000000000002922">10.1097/PCC.0000000000002922</a>