Meaning in Life and Personal Growth among Pediatric Physicians and Nurses

Abstract

Studies examining medical teams indicate that exposure to the terminally ill often has detrimental effects on their physical and emotional well-being. However, recent theoretical developments suggest that this exposure might also have positive implications. The current study sought to examine 2 positive outcomes, meaning in life and personal growth, among physicians and nurses working with hospitalized children and exposed to different levels of patient mortality. In addition, the contribution of level of secondary traumatization and the personal resources of professional self-esteem and optimism were examined. The sample consisted of 58 physicians and 66 nurses working in pediatric hemato-oncology, pediatric intensive care units, and pediatric internal medicine wards in Israel. The findings indicate that a higher level of exposure to patient death, higher optimism, and professional self-esteem, and lower secondary traumatization predicted the sense of meaning in life, whereas occupation, as well as higher professional self-esteem and higher level of secondary traumatization, especially among lower professional self-esteem individuals, predicted a higher experience of personal growth. In addition, nurses reported higher levels of professional self-esteem, secondary traumatization, and personal growth than physicians. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

The Wrap-Up: A Unique Forum To Support Pediatric Residents When Faced with the Death of a Child

“…Personal growth and increased meaning of life have been reported to result from healthy processing of pediatric death. 18 Residents surveyed in our study confirmed that the timeliness of the Wrap-up was important.…”

Investigation of the Death Anxiety and Meaning in Life Levels among Middle-Aged Adults

“…In this regard, the results of previous studies support this finding. Taubman-Ben-Arı, and Weintroub (2008), in their study of 66 nurses and 50 doctors working in pediatric oncology, found that having high optimism and high professional self-esteem as well as witnessing the death of patients influenced the relationship between the meaning in life and personal development. Häusler, Gellert, Deeken, Rapp, and Nordheim (2016) found that health professionals working with dementia patients and their supportive relatives developed more coping skills, which, in turn, improved their quality of life and reduced their levels of stress.…”

Vicarious posttraumatic growth: A systematic literature review

“…Among nurses and physicians, professional self-esteem, defined as the extent to which professionals perceived themselves to be professionally competent and valuable (Carmel, 1997), was positively associated with VPTG (Taubman-Ben- Ari & Weintroub, 2008). In addition, compassion satisfaction, defined as a sense of pleasure or satisfaction gained from one's job (Stamm, 2005), and self-perceived value of one's work were positively associated with VPTG among social workers (Gibbons, Murphy, & Joseph, 2011).…”