• Lorraine F Holtslander and Susan C McMillan.
• College of Nursing, University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada. lorraine.holtslander@usask.ca
• Oncol Nurs Forum. 2011 Jan 1;38(1):60-5.

Purpose/Objectivesto describe depressive symptoms, grief, and complicated grief for bereaved family caregivers of patients who died from cancer-related causes and to explore relationships among these variables.Designa nonexperimental, secondary analysis of cross-sectional descriptive data from a longitudinal intervention study evaluating the effect of providing feedback from standardized assessment tools.Settingtwo large, private, not-for-profit hospices in Florida.Sampleconvenience sample of 280 family caregivers, bereaved three months.Methodssecondary analysis of self-report, survey data three months following death.Main Research Variablesdepressive symptoms, grief, and complicated grief.FindingsThree months after the loss of a loved one, 34% of the caregivers had clinically meaningful scores for depressive symptoms. A significant number of bereaved caregivers were experiencing grief and depression.Conclusionsbereaved caregivers were experiencing significant levels of depressive symptoms and complicated grief. Caregivers with higher levels of grief had more depressive symptoms.Implications For Nursingtools are available to identify bereaved caregivers most in need of intervention.

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