In healthcare, doctors build strong connections and relationships with their patients. In their everyday lives, they often experience the happiness that comes along with successfully treating a patient, but they also experience the sorrow that follows losing one. According to Ellen Redinbaugh, “The literature on doctors’ experiences in caring for the dying is sparse and mostly anecdotal.” How do doctors deal with this type of loss? Grief is a natural human reaction to loss and sudden change. Whether on a small or large scale, we all grieve. It is healthy for doctors to have some type of coping mechanism to rely on when losing a patient. But oftentimes, doctors get very little insight into what those mechanisms are.
In society, doctors are seen as exemplary leaders. They are symbols of life and good health, and thus, they are expected to remain calm and collected at every turn. However, when a patient dies, their strength is challenged. Unfortunately, grieving in the medical setting is seen as unprofessional. This makes it very difficult for doctors to process their feelings because they may feel the need to hold things together for everyone else. But they also need time and support in dealing with the death of a patient. This includes getting help from other doctors around them.
Image Source: artpipi
In a study of 188 medical professionals, Redinbaugh et al. concluded, “The finding that a substantial number of trainees did not talk to their attending physician, and that most did not find attending physicians to be the most helpful resource in dealing with the death, points to a major gap in the clinical education of interns and residents and an important opportunity for attending physicians to improve their clinical training skills.”
Medical schools need to be more aware of the way they introduce their students to grieving. It’s difficult to give someone a lesson on how to grieve because it is an innate emotion rather than a formula. But teachers can convey that it is perfectly acceptable. To some doctors, this means crying along with the widow who feels alone after losing her husband, and to others, it just means showing support for the family. It could also mean taking a moment to step outside or talk with a friend. When doctors feel as if they aren’t allowed to grieve, serious side effects can occur both for themselves and their future patients. Anyone harboring negative emotions for an extended period of time will experience some type of catharsis sooner or later. Coping through silence may cause one to become emotionally burnt out and develop a greater risk for psychiatric disorders in the future. Doctors who experience this more often may build a tolerance to it by detaching themselves from the next patient they see. This reduces the quality of the patient-doctor relationship that should exist. Each medical professional must concoct a method of effectively dealing with patient death. In situations like these, being a doctor doesn’t always have to be emotionally draining. Rather, it could strengthen you as a medical provider and make way for improvement.
