Loss In Nursing

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Due to the nature of hospitalization, as a health care provider working in a ward, nurse has to encounter with loss in a daily basis as patients would experience multiple losses after admission to hospital. Yancey (2014) argued that in hospital, although loss maybe more physical in nature, patients not just lose their ability to control bodily functions due to illness, but also their privacy, independency, and any illusions of personal indestructibility. I remembered when I was in second year, the one of my patients told me that one thing about hospitals was losing dignity. At that time, similar as my encounter with Mrs. A, I was not able to provide professional care due to my lack of understanding and knowledge about this concept as well as …show more content…
This also stresses the necessity for nurse to develop intervention that is specific to each unique patient situation. RNAO (2007) also emphasized the importance of client centered-care in professional nursing care. In order to do that, nurse should have the knowledge in regards to factors that could influence how a person experiences and responds to loss. Depending on the stages of development, different age groups have different reactions when experiencing loss. Pre-operational children have difficulty in understanding the concept of death or loss, though when separated from parents, they do show emotions such as anxiety (Yancey, 2014). However in elderly population, when experiencing loss such as the bereavement of spouse, it is common for them to simultaneously feel positively and negatively. In another word, older adults often have resilience in responding to loss, they appear to be not as devastated as younger people would be (Worden, …show more content…
For example, in China, the expression of a loss of a loved one at the funeral is through extensive crying and weeping in public. In contrast, people who have western culture background usually restrain grieving and mourning into more personal and private manner (Yancey, 2014). Personal interpretation of a loss and expression of grief are largely influenced by cultural or ethnical background (Gillick, 2009). In relation to nursing, nurses need to respect and understand how different cultures review loss when the nurses help clients cop and adjust to this experience. This is especially important in Canada, since it is multicultural in nature. Though, Gillick (2009) stated that nurse is not expected to be able to distinguish or have the prior knowledge on every culture, it is more important for nurse to acquire the related knowledge within the culture while working with the client. And this can be easily achieved by asking the patients specific questions about their culture background in a respectful and acceptable manner (Verosky,