Putting your nurse face on : nurses managing their grief after the death of a patient

Introduction: Current literature explores nurse’s grief experiences in palliative care, paediatric nursing or oncology settings, but to date, there is limited research identifying or exploring grief experiences of nurses working in other clinical areas in a hospital setting after the death of a patient in their care. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to understand how nurses working in acute hospital settings experience grief after the death of a patient in their care, and how they manage their grief within the context of the workplace. Approach: A constructivist grounded theory methodology is being used for this study. This presentation presents the emerging category of “Putting your nurse face on”. This category explores how they manage their own grief reactions with the workplace. Practice Implications: The findings may present an opportunity for changes in best practice and individual self-care strategies for nurses who may be grieving after the death of a patient. Conclusions: When a patient has died nurses cope with the intensity of these emotive clinical situations by putting their nurse face on. This is a temporary state of being. Nurses reframe their thinking becoming task focused and clinically practical at the time of a patient death, describing acts of emotional control to suppress their grief reactions