workforce
The right to grieve
How to cope with workplace grief and loss .
Marie-Anne Schull interviewed by Dallas Bastian
It ’ s normal to feel grief when a patient or client dies .
Marie-Anne Schull , from palliative care provider Karuna , offered this reassurance in an interview with Aged Care Insite . Her comments followed Karuna ’ s survey of 100 nursing , health and aged care staff that revealed nearly 70 per cent felt that the grief and loss they experienced was an issue for them at work .
“ Healthcare and nursing home staff form significant relationships with their clients , patients and residents , so it is not surprising that they can experience grief and loss as a result of their work ,” Schull said prior to the interview .
“ Their experience of loss is often overlooked and ignored and many report burnout and mental health problems as a result .”
Schull said workplace grief and loss impacted on the ability of employees to perform their roles , and added they were more likely to be absent , struggle to concentrate , lack energy and experience fatigue , indecisiveness and a short temper .
“ What we found is that health staff overwhelmingly want further support to cope with the day-to-day reality of grief and loss that surrounds them at work ,” she said .
Schull sat down with Aged Care Insite to discuss the complexities of losing a client or resident as well as some of the potential coping strategies .
ACI : Why did Karuna decide to focus on the way health and aged care workers deal with the loss of a patient , client or resident ? MS : It ’ s an important part of Karuna ’ s work . Karuna is a palliative care service , and over 25 years we ’ ve supported about 10,000 families . We have a clinical team that goes out and works with all of these families , so we recognise that it ’ s an important component of our role as an organisation . We have grief and bereavement staff who support the clinical team as well as the families that use our services .
Based on the survey , how often is this an issue for staff ? We had about 100 nursing , health and aged care staff respond to a survey , and we were looking to identify the topic of greatest interest to them that related to their work . Workplace grief and loss had the strongest interest .
When we asked in the survey how many people had been impacted by workplace grief and loss , 75 per cent of respondents replied . We saw this as very significant , and that led us to develop a program on managing workplace grief and loss .
32 agedcareinsite . com . au