How nurses cope with ongoing grief in clinical work: an exploratory study

Abstract

To date little exploration has been undertaken as to how nurses involved in clinical family work cope with the experience of chronic grief, expressed by families of people with learning disabilities. This paper reports on a purposive sample of three subjects who viewed a video vignette portraying the experience of chronic grief; these subjects were learning disability nurses working in a community setting. Data has been analysed using Thematic Analysis and comparison with the Man-Living- Health simultaneity paradigm. Findings reveal that participants used cognitive strategies that involved re-appraisal of their situations in a variety of settings, such as solitude or through peers or partners. Secondly, participants also wished to discuss shifts from traditional working practices toward care-packaging approaches and how this would impact on family work, and this has prompted questions for further exploration. Concepts of role theory, stress and coping have been used as a conceptual framework for this exploratory study. Finally, this paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology and the conceptual framework that have been used.