Bereavement After Patient Deaths Among Chinese Physicians and Nurses: A Qualitative Description Study

In order to achieve an in-depth understanding of professional caregivers’ experiences of bereavement after patient deaths in Mainland China, qualitative description was employed. 24 physicians and nurses from hospitals in Nanjing, China, participated in one-to-one, semi-structured interviews. Themat...

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Published inOmega: Journal of Death and Dying Vol. 86; no. 3; pp. 788 - 808
Main Authors Chen, Chuqian, Chow, Amy Yin Man, XU, Ke
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.02.2023
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Bereavement
Caregivers
Coping strategies
Disenfranchisement
East Asian People
Grief
Health care
Hospitals
Humans
Meaning
Medical ethics
Nurses
Physicians
Qualitative Research
Taboos
Workplace violence
Workplaces
professional bereavement
Mainland China
qualitative description
physicians
nurses
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Summary:In order to achieve an in-depth understanding of professional caregivers’ experiences of bereavement after patient deaths in Mainland China, qualitative description was employed. 24 physicians and nurses from hospitals in Nanjing, China, participated in one-to-one, semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was adopted for data analysis. Five themes were generated: the nature of professional bereavement experiences, the meaning of patient deaths, immediate bereavement reactions, long-term changes, and coping strategies. Each theme included personal and professional dimensions. Professional bereavement experiences in Mainland China were found to be influenced by workplace violence against professional caregivers, traditional Chinese medical ethics, the strong death taboo, and inadequacies of the healthcare system. Professional bereavement experiences are meaning-driven, comprehensive, and usually disenfranchised. They involve multidimensional reactions and have both short-term and long-lasting, both event-specific and accumulated impacts. Cultural and systemic factors could shape professional bereavement experiences.
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ISSN:0030-2228
1541-3764
DOI:10.1177/0030222821992194