Supporting Resilience and the Management of Grief and Loss among Nurses: Qualitative Themes from a Continuing Education Program.

Caring for patients with cancer is highly stimulating and rewarding, attracting health professionals to the field who enjoy the challenge of managing a complex illness. Health professionals often form close bonds with their patients as they confront ongoing disease or treatment impacts, which may be associated with multiple losses involving function and/or eventual loss of life. Ongoing exposure to patient loss, along with a challenging work setting, may pose significant stress and impact health professionals' well-being.

A Continuing Educational Program Supporting Health Professionals to Manage Grief and Loss.

Health professionals working in oncology face the challenge of a stressful work environment along with impacts of providing care to those suffering from a life-threatening illness and encountering high levels of patient loss. Longitudinal exposure to loss and suffering can lead to grief, which over time can lead to the development of compassion fatigue (CF). Prevalence rates of CF are significant, yet health professionals have little knowledge on the topic.

The impact of the document international work group in death, dying and bereavement: assumptions and principles underlying standards for terminal care.

This article reflects on the development and impact of the International Workgroup on Death, Dying and Bereavement's (IWG) pivotal document on The Assumptions and Principles Underlying Standards for Terminal Care. It was at the Ars Moriendi meetings in Columbia, Maryland that the author first met Bob and Bunny Kastenbaum. The meeting led to the development of IWG and the first task of this group was the development of the "Standards" document.

Comparison and Literature Review of Occupational Stress in a Palliative Radiotherapy Clinic's Interprofessional Team, the Radiation Therapists, and the Nurses at an Academic Cancer Centre.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the predisposing factors for occupational stress within the Rapid Response Radiotherapy Program (RRRP), radiation therapists (RTs), and registered nurses (RNs) at the Odette Cancer Centre (OCC).

Materials And Methods: All RRRP team members (n = 15, including radiation oncologists, residents, and students), RTs (n = 130), and ambulatory care nurses (n = 80) at the OCC were asked to complete a demographics form on professional background and three validated surveys designed to evaluate stress. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was used to assess burnout in the workplace through assessment of personal accomplishment, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization; the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) assessed psychological morbidity; and the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL) assessed compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and burnout.

Self-care of physicians caring for patients at the end of life: "Being connected... a key to my survival".

Physicians providing end-of-life care are subject to a variety of stresses that may lead to burnout and compassion fatigue at both individual and team levels. Through the story of an oncologist, we discuss the prodromal symptoms and signs leading to burnout and compassion fatigue and present the evidence for prevention. We define and discuss factors that contribute to burnout and compassion fatigue and consider factors that may mitigate burnout.

Meaning, spirituality, and wellness in cancer survivors.

Objectives: To explore the concepts of meaning, spirituality, and wellness in cancer survivors.

Data Sources: Review and research articles, books, and personal experience as a nurse psychotherapist and as a cancer survivor.

Conclusion: Cancer survivors often rely on their religious and spiritual beliefs as a way of deriving meaning during their illness experience and survivorship, as well as a way of coping with and coming to terms with the concept of death.

Barriers to communication regarding end-of-life care: perspectives of care providers.

Objective: Communication regarding end-of-life care is frequently perceived as suboptimal, despite the intent of both health care providers and patients. We interviewed health care providers to determine their perspective regarding these barriers to communication.

Materials And Methods: Eleven focus groups with a total of 10 attending physicians, 24 residents, and 33 nurses were convened to explore barriers to end-of-life discussions on the Internal Medicine service at a 600-bed tertiary care hospital in Toronto, Canada.