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What Bereaved People Have Found Helpful Following Death Of A Loved One In A Hospital: A Survey Study, Jon Swanson Phd, Mindy Flanagan Phd, Rachel Pfafman Mph, Mba

Other Specialties

Given the individual and public health impact of bereavement, discovering what people perceive as helpful after loss can improve interventions. In contrast to national projects, this project focused on two hospitals in a Midwestern hospital system.

A survey was developed to assess the work of chaplains with next of kin following a death, to assess the awareness and helpfulness of persons and organizations in the community, and to ask what people had done, said, or given that was helpful, or what respondents wished people had done. From a list of 283 people invited to respond, 52 completed the survey.

Survey …

Exploring Fiber Art Materials In Art Therapy Treatment With Bereaved Families, Elise Leinaweaver

Expressive Therapies Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to explore why families are particularly impacted by negative effects of grief, why it is imperative that the arts be utilized in treatment for bereavement, and why fiber arts are a great vessel for art therapy grief work. The literature was collected and organized through visual coding and reflective tactile methods before being presented in the following review. The first section of the literature review includes definitions of grief, death-related grief, and familial grief and how these experiences cause long lasting impacts and mental health issues. The second and third sections cover the definitions …

Dreams And Dream Work Of Older Adults In Transition: A Review Of The Literature, Tamara J. Hinojosa

All Faculty Scholarship (Archived)

Older adults face unique life transitions related to retirement from paid work, relocation of residence to higher levels of care, and bereavement/end-of-life. Research exploring dream content and dream work for older adults can facilitate understanding about their unconscious experiences and emotions, can promote greater understanding about their mental health needs, and support dream work methods that enhance well-being for older adults in transition. Although studies in this area are minimal, there is more research about the transitions of bereavement and death for older adults as compared to research in the areas of retirement and relocation of residence for older adults. …

No Leave To Grieve: How Misfit Frameworks And America's "Grief Tsunami" Require Better Bereavement Policy, Katherine S. Hanson

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

The COVID-19 pandemic fueled America’s recent death surge: 2021 has become the deadliest year on record in the United States. Scholars and commentators claim that the American workplace re-mains unprepared for the impending “grief tsunami” in the wake of such pervasive loss. Likewise, American law is ill-equipped for workplace grief. Bereavement, while medically “normal,” lacks a substantial foothold in workplace benefits and in the law. Currently, organizations bear the burden of developing their own policies—and where available, these policies remain insufficient to accommodate the myriad logistical and emotional complexities associated with the loss of a loved one. In the event …

Tales Of Love's Perseverance: Family Bereavement Stories As A Means To Investigating Impacts Of End-Of-Life Care On Sense-Making, Cassidy Taladay

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The current study explored the stories of 25 participants who had lost an immediate loved one to a terminal illness one or more years ago. Through the lens of the retrospective storytelling heuristic of Communicated Narrative Sense-Making Theory (CNSM, Koenig Kellas, 2018), participants told their bereavement stories. Findings revealed seven themes of significant meanings, values, and beliefs that defined bereavement experiences which led to the development of a framework of three main types of stories told in bereavement which all centered on time: Past, Present, and Future. These stories reflected what was important to participants in their bereavement, such as …

342 Infant/Child Nicu/Picu Deaths: Subsequent Health And Functioning Of Parents, Grandparents, And Surviving Siblings, Joanne M. Youngblut

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Overview of physical/mental health and functioning of 377 parents, 104 grandparents, and 132 siblings during the first year following 342 infant/child NICU/PICU deaths; what parents and siblings wished they had/had not done around infant/child death; NICU/PICU providers" actions parents found helpful/not helpful; and school-aged children"s/teens" responses to sibling death.

Gadgets And Grieving: A Chronological Analysis On The Ways In Which Advancements In Medical Technologies Have Altered The Grieving Process, Grace Mcnair

Dialogue & Nexus

Since the 1940s, both end-of-life care and advancements in medical technologies have expanded exponentially. This article explores the advancements in medical technologies and how these have altered the way that Western society grieves death. With the capabilities to prolong life, the family, the patient, and the medical team, all grieve the end of life in different ways. This article provides a chronological analysis of palliative care, hospice care, and various medical advancements. These changes in medicine are then paralleled with alterations in the bereavement process. This article explores historical narratives of Western society’s transformation of grief through the lens of …

Gadgets And Grieving: A Chronological Analysis On The Ways In Which Advancements In Medical Technologies Have Altered The Grieving Process, Grace Elaine Mcnair

Honors College

Since the 1940s, both end-of-life care and advancements in medical technologies have expanded exponentially. This article explores the advancements in medical technologies and how it has altered the way that Western society grieves death. With the capabilities to prolong life, the family, the patient, and the medical team, all grieve the end of life in different ways. This article provides a chronological analysis of palliative care, hospice care, and various medical advancements. These changes in medicine are then paralleled with alterations in the bereavement process. Clinicians who have observed transitions in medical technologies were interviewed, and their experiences with the …

Nursing Care At The End Of Life: What Every Clinician Should Know, Susan E. Lowey

Milne Open Textbooks

Nursing Care at the End of Life: What Every Clinician Should Know should be an essential component of basic educational preparation for the professional registered nurse student. Recent studies show that only one in four nurses feel confident in caring for dying patients and their families and less than 2% of overall content in nursing textbooks is related to end-of-life care, despite the tremendous growth in palliative and end-of-life care programs across the country. The purpose of this textbook is to provide an indepth look at death and dying in this country, including the vital role of the nurse in …

Service Utilization Among Bereaved Spouses And Family Caregivers, Elizabeth J. Bergman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For family caregivers, response to the death of the care recipient is marked by a high degree of variability. In recognition of this variability, a range of services and interventions is available to assist individuals in the adjustment to bereavement. The present dissertation, consisting of three related studies, was conducted to examine the utilization of bereavement services by family caregivers.

The first study examined the role of psychological distress in the utilization of bereavement services by spousal caregivers in the Changing Lives of Older Couples (CLOC) study. The second study examined bereavement service utilization among dementia caregiver participants in the …

Informal Caregivers Of Advanced Cancer Patients: The Impact Of Geographic Proximity On Social Support And Bereavement Adjustment, John Garland Cagle

Theses and Dissertations

This research explored the social and psychological needs of caregivers of advanced cancer patients, and their subsequent bereavement adjustment. The study focuses exclusively on informal caregivers who provide assistance to patients receiving hospice care for end-stage cancer. Those individuals living furthest from the dying care recipient, the long distance caregivers, were of particular interest. This study used a prospective design to explore how a caregiver's geographic proximity impacted their social support and bereavement adjustment. A 2 x 3 repeated measures design was used to gather data from caregivers before a patient's death (using a pre-death questionnaire) as well as after …

The Relationship Between Caregiving And Bereavement: A Series Of Three Studies, Allison Burton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Spousal bereavement has been consistently demonstrated in the literature to be one of the most highly stressful experiences in an individual’s lifetime. In addition many deaths in the United States are preceded by a period of caregiving, which is also believed to be highly stressful and have a profound impact on bereavement. However the literature has been inconsistent as to the exact nature of the relationship between caregiving and bereavement and there has been some debate as to whether or not positive and negative affect variables are mutually exclusive.

This dissertation sought to further address the issue of the relationship …