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Introduction
Everyday millions of people grieve for their own reasons. Everyday someone heals a little bit, making the day easier to face, making life easier to manage and becoming a little more resilient to pain of loss. Loss and grief are prevelent in our personal life, in our society, in our culture and in our world.
Dee Dee Call
I am interested in this topic because on some level, we all experience loss and grief, whether we are coping with the loss of a loved one, going through a divorce/breakup or trying to manage our lives during a pandemic.
Pinterest. (n.d.). https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d6/58/57/d65857a0c9ae1ff5456b3da0af9423dd.jpg
Daniale Delkettie
Unfortunately, most of us who work in healthcare will see a lot of death, which seems so backwards. In my field of dialysis, we are keeping patients alive through dialysis, but it is often temporary. Over the weekend I lost 2 patients – they passed away suddenly…. I have lost several over the last few months. Every time a patient passes it reminds me of how precious life is, but it also reminds me of the loved ones I have lost in death.
In summary, overall mortality is 10-20 times higher than the general population for patients receiving dialysis. The risk is greatest during the first 3 months after starting dialysis. Annual mortality is around 9% per year with 40-50% 5-year survival. The main cause of death in patients receiving dialysis is cardiovascular disease, followed by infectious complications. Thus far, studies have shown comparable outcomes for HD and PD.
I want to continue to be empathetic and positive while being resilient. I never want to become ‘jaded’ or become numb to loss. I want to continue to encourage my patients and give them hope and determination to take care of their health. I want to keep the love of life part of my practice at work even though loss is great.
Vega, A., (2018, September 19). What are Survival Rates for Patients on Dialysis? Renal Fellow Network. https://www.renalfellow.org/2018/09/19/what-are-survival-rates-for-dialysis-patients/
Causes of Death in ESRD Patients (USRDS 2017)
Hirut Gebrehanna
I am interested in loss and grief because I lost my only sister, my best friend, motivation, and mentor, and it gave me a love that will last with me forever. She died of breast cancer, and it has been painful and left me with a sense of profound sadness and emptiness for too long. Sometimes, it seems strange that the world continues as if nothing has happened while my world turned inside out thinking of my sister's death. But life continues, and analyze the loved one, and my sister will not be physically present. As far as I know, no one can come up with any words to make me feel better or make this hurt go away. I know how it feels to tell family members about the loss of their loved ones.
According to the national cancer institute (NIH), the rate of new female breast cancer cases was 128.5 per 100,000 per year. The death rate was 20.1 per 100,000 women per year. These rates are age-adjusted and based on 2013-2017 cases and 2014-2018 deaths.
Although grief is a natural reaction to the loss of loved ones, it depends from person to person. I have tried my best to be resilient and convinced myself to show more love towards my family and accept my sister's death and move on.
National Cancer Institue: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program. (n.d.). Cancer Stat Facts: Female Breast Cancer at Glance. https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/breast.html
Kim Huynh
Grief and loss is a daily occurrence that affects everyone. Understanding how people respond to grief and loss is critical in developing enabling strategies, for example, those that will foster quick recoveries and restoration. Consequently, understanding how one react and cope with grief is critical in making sure assumption associated with grief are dealt with.
About 2.5 million people die annually in the USA, leaving behind five grieving individuals. About 1.5 million or 5% are children. 10-20% of people who lose their close one enter the complicated grief stage (Krull, 2020). Based on the statistics, grief following loss is statistically significant as other Global Burden of Diseases, such as depression or diabetes. Among children or married partners, the problem can lead to lifelong challenges, such as trauma or a loss of productive life. Some people even fail to recover from attending their normal jobs fully. Considering that the incidences are also high, the problem needs to be understood and management strategies properly developed (Mancini & Bonnano, 2011). Tell us why you are interested in this topic.
Resiliency is critical when tackling grief. Resilient children or partners can manage the detrimental consequences of the problem. While developing resiliency can be difficult, enabling mechanisms should be fostered since it is the primary recovery method (Mancini & Bonnano, 2011). Resiliency, whether natural or fostered, promotes quick recovery or minimizes possible detrimental consequences of loss and bereavement. Therefore, it is important for the affected to develop resiliency when under stress.
The author cannot provide reference infomation.
Jane Jugao
Loss and grief have touched in my personal life and my career as well in so many ways. I am still recovering from event of losing a loved one, and I would like to learn about the topic how people recover from it. When I have a comport care patient at work as a nurse, It is extremely hard for me to take care the patient because it flashed back from my personal experience.
As my understanding, after loss of a loved one, it is considered as normal physiological and psychological processes to struggle with or grief for a year. After a year, grief process has become more resilience in some ways. People still think of the loved one in their heart, but they overcome the challenge. They would be back to normal life not crying as much as before or the moment of loss.
Eterneva. (n.d.). Coping with Loss: What is it is Like Three Years out, and How Friends and Family Can Help with Grieving. https://eterneva.com/resources/coping-with-loss
Magnum Kandel
I am interested in loss and grief because for the last year I have learned a lot about myself, in this area of life being 26 and never losing anyone and then covid comes and takes 2 family members away was completely life changing. I think this topic is at many people front doors lately and it would be could to keep working on my own grief as I learn from others.
According to USA facts there have been 554,806 deaths to covid just on April 8 (today) 821deaths that is about 1,009 in a 7 day average.
Everyday me and many others work on our resilience within this topic, you'll be driving down the street and see something that reminds you of your loved one and laugh a little, maybe cry a little and then try to take it as a moment they were just try to reach you and say their okay, and as you go on your day you try to hold it together through out all those moments and keep pushing on just like they would want you to.
USA Facts. (2019, May). US COVID-19 Cases and Deaths by State. https://usafacts.org/visualizations/coronavirus-covid-19-spread-map/
Andrea Monroe
I am interested in loss & grief because it has touched my life several times. The truth is that with many experiences in life, we should learn from things each time they happen - like riding a bike. But each time grief has visited it has been more profound than the last time. In nursing school and within the medical profession, we are taught that stoicism is an attribute of a consummate professional. I remember losing my very first patient. I participated in his care for 2 years and we talked weekly when he came into the doctor. When he was passing away at the hospital, his PCP invited me to join in a visit to say our goodbyes. I had lost all of my grandparents before ending high school and knew goodbyes are hard. It was an honor to visit his hospice bed, but also something I felt I failed at – I cried! In fact, I sobbed and the family was offering ME tissues. It wasn’t until his daughter said it was comforting to see that he was also important to others that I realized it is OK to have feelings, and to let them out. This lesson helped when my father in law passed away recently. I walked through the eye of needle beside my spouse, who wrestled strongly with the grief of losing his dad.
Resilience in loss, would look like fond remembrance. It would be finding hope and smiling in the joys of shared times.
Eterneva. (n.d.). Coping with loss: What's its like three years out, and how friends and family can help with grieving. Retrieved April 05 2021, from https://eterneva.com/resources/coping-with-loss
Margarita Zaytseva
I am interested in loss and grief because I had many losses in my immediate family and I had to learn to grieve and heal on my own. I only learned after many years that I could use therapy, counseling, support groups. That time I was in Russia, and unfortunately, my family was going through those losses on their own and it was neither healthy nor functional.
I am interested in children's population, because it is never easy to accept a death of a child. I had a tragic experience in my family loosing a sibling to a horrific death. Although, I used different coping mechanisms, the pain never went away and sometimes it comes at me with big crashing waves.
Loss of a child to an illness like cancer can take a heavy toll on the family, because it is with the dyeing child, dies hope and dreams. Sometimes it disrupts marriages and families due to dysfunctional grievance and lack of necessary resources to overcome the loss. Here is the chart of children's' deaths, where cancer is a predominant factor.
The loss of a child requires delicate approach, counseling, family support and families working as a team to heal together. If the families were resilience when grieving and going through a healing process, it could bring parents and families together instead of pulling them apart.
Field, M. & Behrman, R. (2003). When Children Die: Improving Palliative and End-of-Life Care for Children and Their Families. The National Academies Press. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK220798/
Leah Foster
I am interested in this topic because I work in pediatric cancer. In this field healthcare professionals develop relationships with patients and families over multiple years in most cases. This past year I have lost multiple kids who have made a major impact on me. It feels like a very uncharted kind of grief. I struggle with feeling guilty for the grief I experience, knowing that it is nothing compared to the grief the parents and family are experiencing. One way I have found to help with resilience through this is to write down memories about a patient when they die. It helps to create closure and also gives space to honor their life.
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. (2014, February 23). Facts about childhood cancer infographic. Retrieved April 12, 2021, from https://www.chop.edu/childhood-cancer-awareness-month/facts-about-childhood-cancer-infographic
Conclusion
There are different reasons to grieve and there are different reasons for feeling loss. Your own experiences are just that....your own. Your own definition of loss is just that.....your own. How you deal with your experiences and how you deal with your loss are also your own. Everyone is dealing with loss in some form. Everyone is dealing with grief in some form. Loss and grief is prevelant for everyone in the world.
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