Terminally Ill Patients

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Health Professional Support for Terminally Ill Patients Author Note To understand the role of a healthcare professional, when working with terminally ill patients and their families. Health Professional Support for Terminally Ill Patients There are five basic stages of grief, each stage individual to the person experiencing it. Each stage is a normal, healthy coping process that allows the person to function through daily life as they begin to heal and move past their loss. Some people are unable to cope or move past as others, requiring professional assistance to identify and help them deal with their grief. Denial Denial is usually the first of the five stages, everyone deals with loss differently but the basic processing of the stages remain the same. In this stage people often become “numb” and wonder how they are going to go on. Denial and shock are a natural survival reaction, allowing the person to only take in as much reality as they can handle (Kessler 2012). As healthcare professionals we can empathize with the patient and family and help them with the “get through the day” stage of their grief. Being available to listen to concerns, answering questions and providing guidance on end-of-life matters that may need to be addressed such as; living wills and power of attorney for healthcare. Anger Anger is common emotion that people deal with during the grieving process. Pain and blame usually accompany the wave of emotions in this stage. Why is this happening to them, or who is to blame. Anger allows the person to focus or provide a structure to hold on to, pulling them away of the feeling of helplessness or nothingness. A beneficial service a healthcare professional can provide to the patient, friends and family is supportive resources to help deal with the anger. Education on

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