The following is a summary of “Hospital-Based Interventions to Address Provider Grief: A Narrative Review,” published in the JULY 2023 issue of Pain Management by Yazdan, et al.

Healthcare providers often experience grief related to their patients’ deaths, which can significantly impact their well-being and ability to provide quality care. Addressing provider grief was crucial for sustaining their emotional well-being and ensuring compassionate patient care. For a study, researchers sought to examine the interventions offered by hospitals to help physicians and nurses cope with their grief.

A comprehensive search was conducted on PubMed and PsycINFO databases to identify relevant articles, including research studies, program descriptions, and evaluations, focused on hospital-based interventions for addressing provider grief.

About 29 articles were included in the study. The most common clinical areas addressed in the interventions were oncology, intensive care, internal medicine, and pediatric settings. Education interventions, such as instructional education programs and critical incident debriefing sessions, were found in nine articles. Psychosocial support interventions, including emotional processing debriefing sessions, creative arts interventions, support groups, and retreats, were discussed in twenty articles. 

Participants generally reported positive outcomes from these interventions, including facilitating reflection, grieving, closure, stress relief, team cohesion, and improved end-of-life care. However, the effects of the interventions on reducing provider grief varied and were not consistently statistically significant.

While providers generally found grief-focused interventions beneficial, the research in the area was limited, and the evaluation methods used in the studies were diverse. There was a need to expand access to grief-focused services for healthcare providers and conduct more evidence-based research to understand these interventions’ impact on provider grief. Addressing provider grief was crucial for the well-being of healthcare providers and the overall functioning of healthcare organizations.

Source: jpsmjournal.com/article/S0885-3924(23)00401-3/fulltext