...Harrison Zacher Death and Dying Research Paper Bereavement The loss of a loved one is one of the most difficult experiences to endure in a human lifetime. The grieving process often encompasses the survivors’ entire world and affects their emotional, cognitive, spiritual, and physical selves in unexpected ways. After a major loss, such as the death of a spouse or child, up to a third of the people most directly affected will suffer detrimental effects on their physical and/or mental health (Jacobs 1993). What is Grief and it’s Stages Grief refers to the psychological reaction to the bereavement, the death of a loved one. When a person dies who has been a close companion and with whom we have had a close bond with, many changes in our life have to be taken in. Death of a long-term partner can force on us a need to redefine ourselves and it is not an easy task. Grief becomes a problem when someone gets stuck in grief, this is know as “complicated grief” or “chronic grief”. Factors that contribute to this include a lack of family support and remaining overly focused on past memories. Returning to normal everyday activities is the most obvious sign that the grieving stage is over. Grieving becomes problematic when it lasts longer than six months. Signs of this include loneliness, emptiness, regret, not acknowledging the death, and avoiding places that would be reminders of the deceased person. It is only problematic if these symptoms are excessive and interfere...
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...4-MAT Book Review Instructions The 4-MAT review system is a way of responding to readings that requires the learner to interact with new ideas on several levels. You will write a 4-MAT Book Review of Leming & Dickinson's book, Understanding Dying, Death, and Bereavement. Your paper must follow current APA format (title page, APA headers, introduction section, body of report divided with APA Level 1 (and possibly Level 2) headings, citations, formal Conclusion section, and a separate page for References. The paper must be at least 10 pages (not counting the cover and reference page). First person writing is acceptable throughout parts 2, 3, and 4 of your book review. Use the following format in preparing your 4-MAT Book Review: 1. Summary: Summarize what you have read as if you were the author condensing the book into 4 pages. This section is not a commentary or listing of topics, but rather an in-depth, yet concise, insightful examination of the content. 2. Concrete responses: In at least 2 pages, relate a personal or professional life episode that this book connected to within your own life experience. Relate your story in 1st person, describing action, words, and emotions you remember. In the teaching style of Jesus, this is a do-it-yourself parable, case study, or confession. You will remember more of what you have read when you make this critical, personal connection. This is your chance to tell your story and make new ideas found in the book your own...
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...wellbeing of those facing death. Indeed, health promotion is a core component of the nurse’s role. Originating in the UK, EoLC pathways have been adopted around the world.Their broad aim is to optimise the quality of the dying process, enabling people to ‘die well’ across care settings. This paper examines EoLC pathways in terms of promoting health and wellbeing in this discrete stage of the dying trajectory. Concepts of health and health promotion are described briefly and the idea of health-promoting palliative care and its association with a good death examined. The ensuing discussion relates to two EoLC documents. While acknowledging that much has been achieved it is argued that, despite the potential for promoting health and wellbeing, a professionally led, biomedical approach predominates, and in terms of promoting health and wellbeing at the end of life there is a pressing need for proactive advance care planning at an earlier point in the illness trajectory. Key words: End-of-life care l Care pathways l Terminal care l Health promotion Michael Allen is Staff Nurse, Chemotherapy Day Unit, Singleton Hospital, Abertawe Bro- Morgannwg University Hospital Board, Swansea, Wales; Tessa Watts is Senior Lecturer, Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, Wales Correspondence to: Tessa Watts t.watts@swansea.ac.uk End-of-life care (EoLC), a core component of palliative care, is concerned with pre- venting and easing suffering experienced by people facing death. As life draws to its...
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...How the death of a patient can impact on nurses: A literature review During 2012 there were 499,331 deaths registered in England and Wales, a rise of 3.1% compared with 2011. Almost half of these occurred in National Health Service Hospitals. (Office for National Statistics, 2012). These figures indicate a substantial amount of individuals dying in a hospital setting each year, therefore a large proportion of patients will be receiving some form of care prior to and at death (Blackwell 2010 p.1). Numerous research studies have been carried out by theorists identifying the impact of bereavement on different individuals. The earliest thorough study of grief and loss developed from Freud with his classic paper ‘Mourning and Melancholia’ (Freud 1917 cited in Payne et al 1999). Freud believed that for the bereaved to detach from the deceased one must work through their grief by reviewing memories and thoughts of the deceased (Ellman 2010). Other theorists have recently identified death and the importance of understanding it. 'Death is a natural progression from life. Most nurses will be exposed to the physical and emotional effects of this experience as they care for a dying patient. The nurse is taught how to provide support for the patient and family as they proceed through the stages of grief. Often, however the nurse may not realise his or her own need to grieve'. (Brosche 2003 p. 173). Although nurses try to remain professional whilst at work...
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...University Abstract Authors Leming and Dickinson (2011) bring the discussion of death, dying and bereavement into the 21st century. Focusing the reader’s attention with a renewed perspective in thanatology, authors help redefine, perpetuate conversation, and add relevance to the topic harmoniously. Orienting the reader to individualistic theories that reach beyond universal attentions, Leming and Dickinson (2011) guide the discussion into a new era of defining a natural, yet, unavoidable topic. A re-education of sorts, thanatology is revived in accordance to contemporary day and time. Keywords: spirituality, death, dying, bereavement, suicide 4-Mat Review; Leming and Dickinson Leming & Dickinson (2011), pen about the manner of dying, death and bereavement supported by research and contemporary social theories. Emphasizing experiential knowledge which reinforces concepts of death, dying, and bereavement, a social-psychological tactic was employed throughout the four chapters. Life span comparisons expanded the reader’s perspective. Not to leave out other approaches, concepts are advanced through biological, philosophical and anthropological edifications as well. These systems reveal the interactivity of behavior and subjectivity within the subject matter. Summary Chapter one develops death and dying through the lens of human development and educational theories. Approaching death and dying by means of examining related behaviors develops meaning. Important to most...
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...Hospice Care When a loved one dies, the place of death may have important implications for families’ experience of death and subsequent bereavement, although it may not be the sole factor impacting this experience. (Siden, 2008) Home hospice helps the entire family and family members are encouraged to take an active role in providing supportive care to the patient. In doing so, the family experiences fewer feelings of helplessness and the patient is not relying solely on strangers for all of his/her care. The goal of hospice care is to achieve the best quality of life not only for patients, but also for their families. Enabling death at home, if this is the patient's choice, is often seen as part of ensuring the best possible quality of life. There are hospitals which have a hospice program to give terminally ill patients access to support services and other health care professionals. Many hospitals have a special hospice unit. These units provide intensive medical and psychological support to patients who need aggressive symptom management. Home hospice provides end-of-life care in a setting which is familiar to the patient and their family therefore making their final days more comfortable and beneficial to all. Excellent end-of-life support, in the location of choice, is in itself, an essential aim but my goal is to determine which choice provides the best care for the patient and the family. Palliative care It has been noted that the most common answer to the question...
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...Hospice and Attitudes toward Death Unitie Mance Soc 304: Social Gerontology Kristin Bachman February 27, 2012 A dying man needs to die, as a sleepy man needs to sleep, and there comes a time when it is wrong, as well as useless, to resist. Stewart Alsop Death, dying and bereavement finds a way of impacting everyday living. Images of real or fictional death are often while watching television or movies. Death can impact people on a personal and a cultural level. This essay will entail how cultural attitudes toward dying, death, and bereavement have changed. While examining hospice, the care obtained, and its role in this shift. Cultural attitudes toward dying, death, and bereavement have changed. There are enormous variations across societies and over time in attitudes toward death. Some societies engage in death avoidance while others celebrate the communion between the living and the dead. In the United States there has been an immense change in the process of dying from past centuries to the present. “This change is partly due to a shift in the average age of death and the association of dying with old age” (Aubrey, 2007). It is also caused by a change in the causes of death. At one time most people died from critical illnesses that struck quickly. Now people are more likely to die from a chronic illness that leads to a slow death. The setting for death has also changed. Most deaths in the past occurred in the home. Now death typically takes place in a medical setting...
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...considerable pain and discomfort (Jerayaman, Kathiresan, & Gopalsamy, 2010). The purpose of hospice care is to provide a pain free, comfortable, and dignified death, by providing relief of symptoms, not to treat conditions or prolong life (Jerayaman, Kathiresan, & Gopalsamy, 2010). There are, however, those who do not seek pharmacological relief from pain, whether for religious or personal reasons. For those, there are alternative...
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...Bereavement is the time after a major loss or the experience when loosing someone. Grief is the emotional response. Your grief process will depend heavily upon the way in which the death took place. I am going to explore the bereavement process that takes place when loosing a loves one due to terminal illness and the experience of grief after the loved is gone. Sandra P. Aldrich writes, "Anticipatory grief may very will be cancer's only redeeming factor." When loosing a spouse to terminal illness both you and your spouse begin the grief process together and will go through 5 stages of grief together, that Elisabeth Ross Kuegler has identified. The words bereavement and grief will be used interchangeably, however bereavement is a choiceless event. Grieving is the experience is understood as an active coping process permeated by choice.(Thomas Attig) How the dying and the survivor go through the process will have many determining factors, such as their ability to be honest with each other about how they may be feeling about the inevitable death. Are they prepared financially? What is their spiritual strength? Are there children to be considered? Does the survivor know the wishes of the dying? The first stage of th bereavement is denial. This stage begins almost as soon as the words come out of the doctor's mouth. Immediately the couple is searching for second opinions, convinced that the doctor has read the chart wrong, got charts of the one dying mixed up with someone else's...
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...caused by the death of a loved one or the ending of a romantic relationship. But is there any additional truth to this saying? This study examines the medical implications of having a ‘broken heart’ by establishing a correlational relationship between the loss of a romantic partner and the mortality rates of widowers due to heart-related diseases. By tracking the mortality rates of 4,486 widowers of 55 years of age and older, over a period of 9 years, the researchers made some interesting findings: that within the first 6 months of bereavement, the mortality rate for widowers was 40% above that for matched controls, and that the greatest increase in mortality during these first 6 months came from heart-related diseases. No significant conclusions could be made about the relationship between the cause of wife’s death and the cause of her widower’s, nor about the impact of social class on widower’s mortality rate. We also examine the study’s methodology and provide reasonable recommendations to some of its shortcomings. One practical application of statistics and probability is in the area of medical research. In ‘Broken Heart: A Statistical Study of Increased Mortality Among Widowers’, published by the British Medical Journal, researchers wanted to find out if one could really ‘die of a broken heart’. To test this theory, they decided to obtain data on the mortality of recently bereaved widowers, and examine if their cause of death was indeed...
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...1 Outline the factors that can affect an individual’s views on death and dying •Social •Cultural •Religious •Spiritual 2 Outline the factors that can affect own views on death and dying •Emotional •Past experience •Psychological •Religious •Social •Spiritual 3 Outline how the factors relating to views on death and dying can impact on practice Current and previous professional roles and responsibilities and past; boundaries limited by legal and ethical issues; professional codes of practice - internal and national; impact of management and leadership; input from other team members and workers. 4 Define how attitudes of others may influence an individual’s choices around death and dying different models of nursing care; person-centred...
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...Death in Its Many Forms Abstract The many forms of death will examined and discussed in this paper. From the study of Thanatology which pertains to death and how it is feared by many people of all ages. Also involving the theorists who debated and studied on this topic. Along with that there are religious perceptions of death and how one’s soul will live in the afterlife or take the form of another being. It will also discuss how people grieve over a deceased loved one and how to cope with those feelings. At the same time, this paper will give examples of how people deal with death in the movie Remember Me. Death in Its Many Forms Death is often seen as sad event or even too scary to think about. The views and traditions of death are very different around the world. Some believe there is an afterlife while others believe in reincarnation. There also many ways to mourn or grieve over the loss of a loved one. Even though there are many different ways to look at death, there three that stand out the most; thanatology, religious views, and bereavement. Thanatology The word thanatology actually comes from the Greek word thanatos, meaning death (New World Encyclopedia Contributers). Thanatology is the actual study of death and dying of the social and emotional aspects itself. Also involving the experience of the deceased’s loved ones and how the deceased’s life was celebrated. Nonetheless, Thanatology isn’t sad but it is the acceptance of dying and reaffirmation of...
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...Business Bereavement Leave Judy Sheats ETH/316 October 14, 2013 Dawn Chisholm Cross Culture Business Bereavement Leave It has been said, ‘the only sure things are death and taxes.’ Though taxes may not always apply to global businesses, death of an employee is a global occurrence every company must deal with. Death is a permanent loss and is dealt with differently from culture to culture, mostly based on religious beliefs or traditional rituals. A global company must consider these cultural differences when initiating bereavement leave policies. According to "Studymode.com" (2008), “Grieving and funeral rituals vary greatly across cultures and, in most cases, are associated with religious practices and beliefs. People tend to look at the death phenomena through the scope of their religious beliefs and often relate their personal experiences with death to cultural norms and traditions” (para. 2). Death to a Salesman “When managers consider whether or not to develop a business relationship with those from a different culture, their decision may be affected by actual differences in ethical profiles, but potentially even more so by their perceptions of ethicality in the counterpart culture” (Gift, Gift, & Zheng, 2013, para.1). A worldwide company for instance, has corporate facilities around the globe, which employs Americans and those raised in the country where the business resides. Everyone has their cultural traditions they must follow when a death occurs...
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...User DYING, DEATH AND GRIEF: CHAPLAIN PAUL G. DURBIN, PH.D.: TRIBUTE TO DR. ELIZABETH KUBLER-ROSS (2004): THEORIST ON GRIEF DIES AT 78: DR ELIZABETH KUBLER-ROSS DIES AT 78: [New Orleans Times-Picayune: Aug 26, 2004: The Associated Press] ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS DIES AT AGE 78 ON AUGUST 24, 2004: [From Elisabeth Kubler-Ross website: http://www.elisabethkublerross.com/ ]: (Taken from a seminar manuscript "Dying, Death and Grief" By Chaplain Paul G. Durbin, Ph.D.) From the Book of Ecclesiastes, the 5th verse of the 9th chapter, we read, "For the living know that they shall die." Life is but a short journey from the cradle to the grave. For some death comes early in life, for others in the middle years and for some it comes with old age. Whatever period of life death occurs, it comes to all. Death is the great equalizer for it comes to the rich and poor, the loved and unloved, the happy and the sad, to the male and female, the good and the bad. In some cases death can be postponed or delayed, but eventually it comes to all. None of us are exempt as we realize that one day, we too must die. Dying, death and bereavement are fundamental and pervasive aspects of the human experience. We can only achieve fullness of living by understanding and appreciating these realities. The absence of such understanding and appreciation may result in unnecessary suffering, loss of dignity, alienation and diminished quality of living. Though education about dying, death and bereavement should be an...
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...Death Studies, 36: 1–22, 2012 Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0748-1187 print=1091-7683 online DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2011.553312 BEREAVEMENT EXPERIENCES OF MOTHERS AND FATHERS OVER TIME AFTER THE DEATH OF A CHILD DUE TO CANCER RIFAT ALAM Department of Psychology, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada MARU BARRERA Department of Psychology, Haematology=Oncology Program, Child Health Evaluative Sciences, Research Institute, Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada NORMA D’AGOSTINO Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care, Survivorship Program, Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada DAVID B. NICHOLAS Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada GERALD SCHNEIDERMAN Department of Psychiatry, Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada The authors investigated longitudinally bereavement in mothers and fathers whose children died of cancer. Thirty-one parents were interviewed 6 and 18 months post-death. Analyses revealed parental differences and changes over time: (a) employment—fathers were more work-focused; (b) grief reactions—mothers expressed more intense grief reactions that lessened over time; (c) coping—mothers were more child-focused, fathers more task-focused; (d) relationship with bereaved siblings—mothers actively nurtured relationship with child;...
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