兰州大学循证社会科学交叉创新实验室 Innovation Laboratory of Evidence-based Social Sciences,Lanzhou University

The grief and bereavement experiences of informal caregivers: A scoping review of the North American literature

2021-12-03

BACKGROUND: Informal caregivers are a significant part of the hospice and palliative care landscape as members of the interdisciplinary care team. Despite this, little is known about the impact this responsibility has on informal caregivers' experiences of grief and bereavement. OBJECTIVE: To address this, a scoping review of the literature was conducted to explore the current state of knowledge toward grief and bereavement of informal caregivers of adult/geriatric patients in the hospice and palliative/end-of-life care realm within North America. METHODS: Using Arksey and O'Malley's 5-step framework, key electronic health care and social sciences databases (eg, CINAHL, MEDLINE, ProQuest Sociological Abstracts, PsycINFO) alongside gray literature sources were searched and screened against inclusion and exclusion criteria. A thematic content analysis was used to identify key themes. RESULTS: 29 articles met the final inclusion criteria with 3 central themes emerging: (1) mediators of grief, (2) grief experiences, and (3) types of grief. DISCUSSION: Informal caregivers encounter unique grief and bereavement experiences: The range of psychosocial outcomes, both negative and positive, can be affected by various mediators such as caregiver burden, demographics, disease type of the patient being cared for, etc. Bereavement interventions must be designed with the mediators of grief in mind. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding the nuances of informal caregivers' experiences with grief and bereavement will inform and advance practice, policy, and research. Practitioners/clinicians should be further educated on how to properly acknowledge the complexity of grief and bereavement for informal caregivers, specifically paying attention to mediators. Further research needs to consider the role of culture.

研究类型
系统评价再评价
人群
混合人群
主题
["医疗服务人员","卫生服务"]
作者
Neerjah Skantharajah , Carol Barrie , Sharon Baxter , M Carolina Borja , Anica Butters , Deborah Dudgeon , Ayeshah Haque , Iqra Mahmood , Mehrnoush Mirhosseini , Raza M Mirza , Ankita Ankita , Carly Thrower , Christina Vadeboncoeur , Andrew Wan , Christopher A Klinger
国家
Canada
关键词
anticipatory grief, bereavement, complicated grief, hospice and palliative care, informal caregivers, older adults, scoping review
来源期刊
J Palliat Care
发布日期
2021-12-03
全文链接
https://doi.org/10.1177/08258597211052269
相关网址
https://www.healthsystemsevidence.org/articles/62fe6fcfef088708d8e14681-the-grief-and-bereavement-experiences-of-informal-caregivers-a-scoping-review-of-the-north-american-literature?source=saved_email
DOI
10.1177/08258597211052269
学科领域
Not available