How do medical staff members cope with the death of a patient?

Answer 1

the facility that you work in should have classes or education on hospice care, that will teach you proper stress management.

i have experienced this during this year, and it was very hard. i didn't have the hospice class yet, and felt very disturbed by what i witnessed. ultimately i came home reeeling from the events of the evening and felt really beside myself. i couldn't go to sleep that nite, and eventually went into a restless sleep. the next day i talked with good friends who are on the EMT and have already experienced death and they comforted me just by saying that it happens, and this is the line of work we chose. and all the classic comforting things.
there is no one way that anyone can expect to deal with a death of a patient, but you should talk to people where you work, and your boss and find out if there is a hospice training you can take. just talk to people. you will feel better.

Answer 2

To the non professional bystander it may seem there is no emotion involved when medical staff deal with death because working in that sort of environment "hardens" the care giver to accept the fact humans do in fact die despite all the good efforts put forward day in and day out.

Very likely in a hectic situation dealing with life or death one can only do just so much paying the most attention to the most life threatening patient often raises the adrenaline level and thus masks the emotions.

But Know any health professional is human and they do have feelings and need to keep a professional attitude to cope with every day situations and surviving family members of one who just died.

Answer 3

It's in this job's nature to learn how to detach yourself from becoming too emotional with your patients. This is why you can see the majority of doctors are quite emotionless, or at least this is how we perceive this thing. Just imagine if they hesitate during an operation just because they are afraid of harming the patient because they have a special relationship?
Sometimes, in special cases, a relationship based on feelings can be established between a patient and a doctor. Then, the doctor feels sad, of course, but copes with this sadness because he is keeping himself busy healing other patients.
That's what I think.

Answer 4

We DO have to detach to a certain degree, but we still have the same basic feelings as everyone else. When I have a patient that I have cared for on a longterm basis, it still gets to me when they die. Sometimes I cry after I get home. Occasionally I have cried while it was happening. But eventually you accept that part of life is death. In some cases, when the patient is suffering horribly, you just feel relief for them. It takes a certain mindset to deal with the sick and dying and not everyone is cut out for it.

Answer 5

Please do not misconstrue what I am about to say, for there ARE some great health-care providers out there. But generally..the bodies are like machines...if they can't be fixed...discard it and start on one that can!!!! If they did not have this disposition...they themselves would be a nervous wreck. I respect all health-care providers, for they do have a job which can take a toll on them!!!!!

Answer 6

usually with some humor
Medical, Fire, Police usually have a weird warped sense of humor to cope

Answer 7

i think they can distance themselves from such thing.. and keep from being too emotionally attached to their patients.