Impact of death and dying on the personal lives and practices of palliative and hospice care professionals

Abstract

A lthough preserving life is a central goal of medicine, in the end, death is an unavoidable outcome. Professionals in palliative and hospice care, working within the landscape of death and dying, are able to provide insight into death-related experiences and have the opportunity to incorporate these ex periences into their personal and professional lives. The ability for death to foster meaning in life has been attested to by wisdom traditions and palliative care professionals alike. The latter usually provide rich accounts of the struggles of dying individuals, and in some instances, accounts of individuals who dis covered meaning and purpose within this landscape.Although an expansive body of literature has evolved exploring the spiritual and existential impact of death and dying, these studies focused predominately on the impact on patients and occasionally on family members.1-5 A small number of studies discussed the residual impact of end-of-life care within a localized group of health care providers; however, there is limited cross-sectional research explicitly investigating the long-term effect of death and dying on the personal and professional lives of individuals who are exposed to death and dying on a frequent basis. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] To address these gaps in the literature, this study explored the impact of death and dying on the lives of key leaders and frontline professionals in palliative and hospice care -individuals who arguably provide society and health care practitioners with the most authoritative discourse on end of life and its effect on life in general. This study was part of a larger ethnographic inquiry on the spirituality of palliative and hospice care professionals in Canada. Methods Study populationData were collected in two phases. With the use of purposive sampling, six key leaders in palliative and hospice care at five centres across Canada were identified for the first phase of the study. The leaders were identified based on their Background: Working within the landscape of death and dying, professionals in pal liative and hospice care provide insight into the nature of mortality that may be of benefit to individuals facing the end of life. Much less is known about how these professionals incorporate these experiences into their personal lives and clinical practices.

Interdisciplinary palliative care teams : insights and experiences of chaplain interns and social work interns.

“…They believed facing one's mortality to be helpful and possibly a requirement to providing effective care to the dying. This study showed life-affirming lessons learned by clinicians from those who are nearing death (Sinclair, 2011). …”

“…Sinclair's (2011) ethnographic inquiry sought to produce detailed understanding of the impact of death and dying on 24 clinicians who provided end-of-life care. Analysis of semi-structured interviews and participant observation discovered three overarching categories (e.g., past, present, future) and 11 themes from the data.…”

The “specter” of cancer: Exploring secondary trauma for health professionals providing cancer support and counseling.

“…For instance, we documented the emotional work required in attempting to support people with cancer and their families Kovács et al, 2010) and the protective role of self-care strategies for professionals engaging in this work (Kearney, Weininger, Vachon, Harrison, & Mount, 2009;Trufelli et al, 2008). Additionally, we emphasize the need for workplace, as well as individual, strategies that acknowledge the health professionals' feelings and needs and bolster their communication skills Pereira et al, 2011;Trufelli et al, 2008), as well as highlighting the job satisfaction that often accompanies such roles (Ablett & Jones, 2007;Sinclair, 2011).…”

<b>Estratégias de cuidados adotadas por enfermeiros na atenção à criança hospitalizada com câncer avançado e no cuidado de si</b> DOI: 10.4025/cienccuidsaude.v13i3.19937

“…Em alguns casos, a experiência profissional é considerada como uma aliada para lidar com as situações adversas e imprevisíveis que incluem o evento da morte, facilitando a sua aceitação, ou seja, ela pode contribuir para que algumas pessoas adquiram esperança, compaixão, apurem o autoconhecimento, tornando-se mais sensíveis e preparadas para o enfrentamento da morte (15)(16) . Contudo, a subjetividade inerente ao ser humano não iguala as formas de pensamento, nem tão pouco, iguala os modos de cada profissional lidar com esse acontecimento em seu cotidiano de trabalho (13) .…”