Beyond Right or Wrong: Attitudes and Practices of Physicians, Nurses, Psychologists, and Social Workers Regarding Attendance at Patient Funerals.

Zambrano Ramos, Sofia Carolina; Chur-Hansen, Anna; Crawford, Gregory B (2019). Beyond Right or Wrong: Attitudes and Practices of Physicians, Nurses, Psychologists, and Social Workers Regarding Attendance at Patient Funerals. Journal of palliative medicine, 22(4), pp. 400-407. Liebert 10.1089/jpm.2018.0234

[img] Text
Unbenannt.pdf - Published Version
Restricted to registered users only
Available under License Publisher holds Copyright.

Download (154kB)

BACKGROUND

Health professionals' bereavement practices, including funeral attendance, have attracted relatively little attention from researchers. There may be a number of motivations and perceived benefits for health professionals to attend patient funerals. There are no published data comparing different groups of health professionals' perceptions of and practices in attending the funerals of their patients.

OBJECTIVE

To understand the attitudes and practices of health professionals toward attendance at patient funerals.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional nationwide online survey of attitudes and practices toward attendance at patient funerals based upon data from interviews with health professionals.

PARTICIPANTS

Australian health practitioners from medicine, nursing, psychology, social work, and other allied health professions (n = 1098).

RESULTS

Attendance at patient funerals was predicted by age, telling colleagues about own funeral attendance practices, having discussions with colleagues about funeral attendance, having long relationships with patients, and having a majority of patients at the end of life. Nonattendance was predicted by believing that if they cannot attend all funerals, they prefer not to attend any, feeling that colleagues disapprove of funeral attendance, believing that attending funerals is crossing the line between the personal and the professional, and being a psychologist.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings emphasize the need for more open discussions and reflection among individuals and groups of health practitioners regarding attendance at funerals. Understanding the motivations of physicians, nurses, social workers, and other allied health practitioners to attend or not attend patient funerals is an important first step in working toward policies, protocols, and guidelines to support best practice.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Haematology, Oncology, Infectious Diseases, Laboratory Medicine and Hospital Pharmacy (DOLS) > Clinic of Medical Oncology

UniBE Contributor:

Zambrano Ramos, Sofia Carolina

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

1557-7740

Publisher:

Liebert

Language:

English

Submitter:

Rebeka Gerber

Date Deposited:

11 Mar 2019 11:12

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:25

Publisher DOI:

10.1089/jpm.2018.0234

PubMed ID:

30412446

Uncontrolled Keywords:

attitude of health personnel bereavement care cross-sectional studies funeral attendance health care providers terminal care

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.124891

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/124891

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback