We Take Care of People; What Happens to Us Afterwards?”

Home Health Aides and Bereavement Care in Hospice

Datos Bibliográficos

ID13628229
AutoresAngela Ghesquiere (0000-0001-7004-6790, Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging, Hunter College of the City University of New York, New York, NY, USA, autor de correspondencia), Ariunsanaa Bagaajav (City University of New York, New York, NY, USA)
Año2018
Volumen80
Número4
Páginas615-628
Fecha de publicación2018-01-23
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaOMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0030-2228 • E-ISSN: 1541-3764
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0030222818754668
PMID29359631
OpenAlexW2787830849
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas24

After a hospice patient dies, hospice providers can experience a variety of emotional responses. While work has been done on social workers' and nurses' reactions to patient death, home health aides (HHAs) have been overlooked. To address this gap, we conducted focus groups and individual qualitative interviews with 14 hospice HHAs. Questions covered HHAs' grief responses and how they coped with grief. We found a high burden of grief reactions; many HHAs often developed very close patient relationships. HHAs also noted that they often started working with new patients almost immediately after a death, leaving little time to process the loss. However, HHAs found support from other HHAs, their supervisors, as well as family, friends, and spiritual practices to be helpful in coping with their grief. Future work should enhance support to HHAs around patient loss; for example, grief support may be embedded into hospice team activities

Economic growth · Economics · Health care · Home health · Hospice care · Palliative care · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Homelessness and Social Issues · Medicine · Nursing · Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues · Psychology