Chapter 36: The Experience of Loss, Death, and Grief Flashcards
Necessary loss
A part of life.
Maturational loss
A form of necessary loss and includes all normally expected life changes across the life span.
Situational loss
Sudden, unpredictable external events.
Grief
The emotional response to a loss, manifested in ways unique to an individual and based on personal experiences, cultural expectations, and spiritual beliefs.
Mourning
The outward, social expressions of grief and the behaviors associated with loss.
Bereavement
Encompasses both grief and mourning, and includes the emotional responses and outward behaviors of a persona experiencing loss.
Normal (uncomplicated) grief
A common, universal reaction characterized by complex emotional, cognitive, social, physical, behavioral, and spiritual responses to loss and death.
Anticipatory grief
The unconscious process of disengaging or letting go before the actual loss or death occurs, especially in situations of prolonged or predicted loss.
Disenfranchised grief
The relationship to the decreased person is not socially sanctioned, cannot be openly shared, or seems of lesser significance.
Ambiguous loss
A type of disenfranchised grief, occurs when the lost person is physically present but not psychologically available.
Complicated grief
A person has prolonged or significantly difficult time moving forward after the loss.
Bowlby’s attachment theory
Describes the experience of mourning based on his studies of children separated from their parents during World War II.
What are the four stages of mourning?
Numbing, yearning and searching, disorganization and despair, and reorganization.
Numbing
The grieving person describes this stage as feeling stunned or unreal; shorted stage.
Yearning and searching (separation anxiety)
Emotional outbursts of tearful sobbing and acute distress.
Disorganization and despair
A person endlessly examines how and why the loss occurred or expresses anger at anyone who seems responsible for the loss.
Reorganization
The person begins to accept change, assume unfamiliar roles, acquire new skills, and build new relationships.
Reminiscence
A person recollects and reexperiences the deceased and the relationship by mentally or verbally anecdotally reliving and remembering the person and past experiences.
Palliative care
Focuses on the prevention, relief, reduction, or soothing of symptoms of disease or disorders throughout the entire course of an illness.
Hospice
Care of terminally ill patients and their families.
Autopsy
The surgical dissection of a body after death.
Postmortem care
The care of a body after death.
Compassion fatigue
Described as physical, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion resulting from seeing patients suffer, leads to a decreased capacity to show compassion or empathize with suffering people.
