LOSS, GRIEVING, AND DEATH Flashcards
o Actual or potential situation in which something
valued is changed or no longer available
Loss
o Loss for dying person and those who survive
o Can stimulate people to grow in understanding of
self, others
- Death
Two types of loss:
▪ Recognized by others
o Actual
Two types of loss:
▪ Experienced by one person but cannot
be verified by others
▪ Psychological losses are often perceived
losses because they are not directly
verifiable.
o Perceived
o Experienced before loss occurs
o Can be actual or perceived
- Anticipatory
o Total response to emotional experience of loss
o manifested in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
associated with overwhelming distress or sorrow
Grief
STAGES OF GRIEVING
o Refuses to believe that loss is happening.
o Is unready to deal with practical problems, such as
prosthesis after the loss of a leg.
o May assume artificial cheerfulness to prolong
denial.
Denial
o Subjective response by surviving loved ones
- Bereavement
o Behavioral process through which grief is resolved
or altered
- Mourning
o brief but genuinely felt
o occur when the lost object is not significantly
important to the grieving person or may have been
replaced immediately by another, equally
esteemed object.
- Abbreviated grief
o occurs when a person is unable to acknowledge
the loss to other people.
o Situations in which this may occur often relate to a
socially unacceptable loss that cannot be spoken
about, such as suicide, abortion, or giving a child
up for adoption.
Disenfranchised grief
Complicated grief may take several forms.
- many of the normal symptoms
of grief are suppressed and
other effects, including somatic,
are experienced instead.
Inhibited grief
STAGES OF GRIEVING
o Client or family may direct anger at nurse or staff
about matters that normally would not bother
them.
Anger
Complicated grief may take several forms.
- is extended in length and
severity. - same signs are expressed as
with normal grief, but the
bereaved may also have
difficulty expressing the grief,
may deny the loss, or may
grieve beyond the expected
time.
Unresolved or chronic grief
o experienced in advance of the event
- Anticipatory grief
Complicated grief may take several forms.
occurs when feelings are
purposely or subconsciously
suppressed until a much later
time.
▪ Delayed grief
what are “Six stages of Grieving”
Shock and disbelief
Developing awareness
Restitution
Resolving the loss
Idealization
- Outcome
o Unhealthy grief
o exists when the strategies to cope with the loss are
maladaptive and out of proportion or inconsistent
with cultural, religious, or age-appropriate norms
Complicated grief
Complicated grief may take several forms.
- A survivor who appears to be
using dangerous activities as a
method to lessen the pain of
grieving
▪ Exaggerated grief
– “Five stages of Grieving”
KÜBLER-ROSS
Five phases of Bereavement”
o Friends and family resume normal activities. The
bereaved experience the full significance of their
loss.
Awareness of loss
STAGES OF GRIEVING
o Comes to terms with loss.
o May have decreased interest in surroundings and
support people.
o May wish to begin making plans (e.g., will,
prosthesis, altered living arrangements).
- Acceptance
STAGES OF GRIEVING
o Seeks to bargain to avoid loss (e.g., “let me just
live until and then I will be ready to die”).
Bargaining
STAGES OF GRIEVING
o Grieves over what has happened and what cannot
be. May talk freely (e.g., reviewing past losses
such as money or job), or may withdraw.
Depression
