According to information from the "CIA Factbook, 2012" there are just about 6,744 deaths in the National Health Service hospital facilities in the United states. This is roughly 41% of the number of patient admissions in the year 2011. On the other hand 12% of the patients pass on at home and other institutions not associated with the health sector. From the CIA Factbook, 23% die in hospice institutions. The office for national statistics (2012) indicates that 24% of patients pass on in community health facilities.
According to psychologists, the death of a person is likely to impact negatively on most people associated with the person. Such negative impacts are usually psychological and are collectively defined as the grief journey. There have been numerous studies that have been carried out over the years to establish the effect of a person’s demise on people socially and biologically affiliated to the deceased. The studies are all associated with the works of Sigmund Freud in one way or another. Sigmund Freud prominently sought to address various matters in psychological aspects relating to relationships among people.
Nurses are considered as being more in contact with patients than any other workers in the health facilities. This is essentially because nursing is about care giving, a function that creates a bond between the care giver and the patient. In some cases, especially those relating to giving attention to patients that are in need of care the bond between the nurse and the patient is stronger, because of the prolonged stay at the hospital.
The main aim of this study is to establish the effect of patient’s death on the personnel, especially the nurses. Speaking of effects, the study will prominently focus on the impact on both the work lives and the social lives of the nurses. This study will do so, with the aim of identifying any relevant support systems.
Rickerson et al (2005) carried out a quantitative research that sampled out approximately 200 members of staff at six nursing homes in the US. According to the study, the healthcare employees were affected to different degrees, with the longest serving members of staff being the most severely affected. The explanation for this outcome was simple – having worked longer in the facilities, the members of staff had developed social ties with the patients. The factors that were prominently considered in this study were emotional bonds with the relatives of the deceased and the changes in the productivity of the staff members.
The constraints of the study were mainly rooted the nature of questions, and the manner in which they were asked. The questions were rigid to the extent that obtaining an objective answer from the participants was considerably difficult, and in some cases, making sense out of the answers was quite a hassle. The questions were also set in such a way that they only instigated the generation of generalized answers.
The research found out that compassion fatigue levels were significantly high for nurses and other healthcare personnel caring for children living with chronic conditions such as cancer compared to adults with the same chronic conditions (Costello, 2001). Research clearly indicates that the passing on of patients does negatively influence their care givers, and other health personnel. Further studies into some areas discussed can provide insights on ways to support nursing staff in these scenarios. This should focus on the most effective ways of dealing with compassion fatigue, so as to prevent low productivity after the death of a patient.
The setting of this study is the assisted living center. The major stakeholders of this setting are the caregivers (the nurses), the elderly and the ailing, the institutional administrators and the relatives to the people in need of elderly care. The first three classes are internal stakeholders, while the relations to the people in need of care are the external stakeholders. The assisted living environment is an environment of close relationships because, according to researchers in the field of psychology, the connections between the nurses and the people in need of care grow to be close bonds over time. In the assisted living centers, there are such resources as recreation facilities and accommodation. The rooms accommodating the people in need of care are furnished, usually with such facilities as televisions. The major constrain is communication, since the patients in such institutions have special needs. Following the close ties that develop, death can be quite a disturbance. This study will focus on this setting as it is described – the stakeholders, the resources, the environment and the context.
References
Costello J. (2001) Nursing older dying patients; findings from an ethnographic study of death and dying in elderly care wards. Journal of Advanced Nursing 35(1) 59-68
Office for National Statistics (2012) Mortality Statistics; Deaths registered in 2007
Papadatou D et al (2001) Caring for Dying Children; a comparative study of nurses' experiences in Greece and Hong Kong Cancer Nursing 24(5) 402-412
Rickerson E. et al (2005) how well are we caring for caregivers? Prevalence of grief related symptoms and need for bereavement support among long term care staff. Journal of pain and symptom management 30(3) 227-233
United States. (2011). The CIA World Factbook 2012. New York: Skyhorse Pub.
