Omega
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When a baby has died during pregnancy, the first encounter between mother and child occurs when the baby is already dead. Despair, emptiness, and grief characterize the encounter, which is also a gradual farewell to the child and the planned future for the family. This study describes mothers' experiences of the farewell of their stillborn baby at discharge from hospital. ⋯ Routines for a dignified goodbye including designating a deputy guardian into whose arms the mother can place the baby can help to facilitate the separation. The possibility of leaving the baby in the arms of someone known to the parents should be an option for parents who choose to take farewell of the child at the hospital. The place and time for the farewell should be decided on by the parents, taking the baby home for a personal farewell could be an alternative.
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Little is known about the psychological phenomenology of death. Reported across known history and in all cultures by those who have died or been close to death, NDEs challenge objective-mechanistic models by suggesting the phenomenology of death may involve a variety of complex psychological processes. This article discusses three notable characteristics of the NDE--loss of the fear of death, psychological sequelae, and complex conscious abilities--supporting this claim. The implications these have for advancing societal understandings of death are discussed, and their pragmatic application for professions where death is frequently encountered, such as palliative care, is addressed.
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Students enrolled in health profession courses require grief education so that, upon graduation, they are able to meet the needs of clients living with loss and grief. We investigated grief and loss education in six Australian university programs--medicine, nursing, counseling, psychology, social work, and occupational therapy--drawing from course documents and face-to-face interviews with key staff and final-year students. Only the counseling course included a dedicated grief and loss unit. ⋯ The social work course taught grief as a socially-constructed practice and the psychology course focused on grief and loss in addiction. Several factors influenced the delivery of grief education, including staffing, time, placement opportunities, student feedback, and needs of each profession. The study provides an indication as to how future health professionals are prepared for grief and loss issues in their practice.
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Multiple bereaved adult children, as siblings, have rarely been studied. We expand the paradigm of bereavement research to explore the ways that two sisters describe the experience and meaning of the death of their elderly father. ⋯ Their views of their father's death reflected their particular relationship with their father, their non-shared experiences over the life course, and their personal world views. Differences and contradictions in the views of multiple siblings can broaden our understanding of bereavement and of the processes central to parent-child ties at the end of life.
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Historically, death took place at home where family held vigil around the dying patient. Today, family presence is an important feature of death and dying in hospital settings. ⋯ Two major themes emerged: 1) "settling in," characteristic of the experiences of wives and daughters in the initial phase of the patient's hospitalization; and 2) "gathering around," characteristic of the experiences of a wider array of family members as the patient neared death. An in-depth understanding of experiences of next-of-kin present at the hospital death of a loved one can increase staff awareness of family's needs and empower staff to develop policies and procedures for supporting family members.