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Death Announcement: Difficulties and Pediatricians’ Experiences

Received: 1 May 2020     Accepted: 10 June 2020     Published: 20 June 2020
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Abstract

Notification of death is a shock for the family but also for the caregiver. However, there is a tendency to forget the feelings of caregivers about this theme. The objective of our study is to evaluate doctors feelings and the difficulties during the announcement of deaths. Methods: A qualitative, exploratory study involving 34 doctors exercising at the pediatric center of the Mohammed VI university hospital in Marrakesh. To explore doctors' experiences in providing care, their emotional reactions to the patient's death, and their use of coping and social resources to manage their emotions. Results: An amount of doctors reported death between 5 to 10 times in 35.3% and between 10 to 20 times in 26.4%; 41.2% of the cases reported a feeling of sadness during the notification, 29.4% felt dizzy and 29.4% revealed a stress. Twenty-one doctors had felt the need of support and a psychologist consultation to talk and express themselves. A percentage of 97% of physicians said they had never received any training on the death notification and felt that training in this sense was useful and necessary. Conclusion: notification of death remains a difficult test, it requires preparation as well as learning by training especially when it comes to announcing the death of a child.

Published in International Journal of Psychological and Brain Sciences (Volume 5, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijpbs.20200502.11
Page(s) 28-30
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Pediatrician, Death, Communication, Pain, Children

References
[1] Redinbaugh, E. M., et al., Doctors' emotional reactions to recent death of a patient: cross sectional study of hospital doctors. Bmj, 2003. 327 (7408): p. 185.
[2] Krakowski, A. J., Stress and the practice of medicine II. Stressors, stresses, and strains. Psychotherapy and psychosomatics, 1982. 38 (1-4): p. 11-23.
[3] Clément-Hryniewicz, N., Facing impending death and physical and/or psychic degradation: suffering of patients and their families. Thinking about the suffering endured by patients with cancer and their families in palliative care. L'Information Psychiatrique, 2012. 88 (9): p. 735-741.
[4] Ptacek, J., et al., Breaking bad news to patients: physicians' perceptions of the process. Supportive Care in Cancer, 1999. 7 (3): p. 113-120.
[5] Lutfey, K. and D. W. Maynard, Bad news in oncology: How physician and patient talk about death and dying without using those words. Social Psychology Quarterly, 1998: p. 321-341.
[6] Purdy, R., et al., Resident physicians in family practice: who's burned out and who knows? Family medicine, 1987. 19 (3): p. 203-208.
[7] Jenkins, V. and L. Fallowfield, Can communication skills training alter physicians' beliefs and behavior in clinics? Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2002. 20 (3): p. 765-769.
[8] Libert, Y. and C. Reynaert, Les enjeux de la communication médecin-patient et l’importance des caractéristiques psychologiques du médecin. Psycho-oncologie, 2009. 3 (3): p. 140-146.
[9] Buckman, R., Breaking bad news: why is it still so difficult? British medical journal (Clinical research ed.), 1984. 288 (6430): p. 1597.
[10] Fallowfield, L., et al., Efficacy of a Cancer Research UK communication skills training model for oncologists: a randomised controlled trial. The Lancet, 2002. 359 (9307): p. 650-656.
[11] Dauchy, S. and N. Bendrihen, Annonce et vécu psychologique, in Thérapeutique du cancer. 2011, Springer. p. 945-956.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Mariam Lagrine, Fatiha Bennaoui, Nadia El Idrissi Slitine, Fadl Mrabih Rabou Maoulainine. (2020). Death Announcement: Difficulties and Pediatricians’ Experiences. International Journal of Psychological and Brain Sciences, 5(2), 28-30. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijpbs.20200502.11

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    ACS Style

    Mariam Lagrine; Fatiha Bennaoui; Nadia El Idrissi Slitine; Fadl Mrabih Rabou Maoulainine. Death Announcement: Difficulties and Pediatricians’ Experiences. Int. J. Psychol. Brain Sci. 2020, 5(2), 28-30. doi: 10.11648/j.ijpbs.20200502.11

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    AMA Style

    Mariam Lagrine, Fatiha Bennaoui, Nadia El Idrissi Slitine, Fadl Mrabih Rabou Maoulainine. Death Announcement: Difficulties and Pediatricians’ Experiences. Int J Psychol Brain Sci. 2020;5(2):28-30. doi: 10.11648/j.ijpbs.20200502.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijpbs.20200502.11,
      author = {Mariam Lagrine and Fatiha Bennaoui and Nadia El Idrissi Slitine and Fadl Mrabih Rabou Maoulainine},
      title = {Death Announcement: Difficulties and Pediatricians’ Experiences},
      journal = {International Journal of Psychological and Brain Sciences},
      volume = {5},
      number = {2},
      pages = {28-30},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijpbs.20200502.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijpbs.20200502.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijpbs.20200502.11},
      abstract = {Notification of death is a shock for the family but also for the caregiver. However, there is a tendency to forget the feelings of caregivers about this theme. The objective of our study is to evaluate doctors feelings and the difficulties during the announcement of deaths. Methods: A qualitative, exploratory study involving 34 doctors exercising at the pediatric center of the Mohammed VI university hospital in Marrakesh. To explore doctors' experiences in providing care, their emotional reactions to the patient's death, and their use of coping and social resources to manage their emotions. Results: An amount of doctors reported death between 5 to 10 times in 35.3% and between 10 to 20 times in 26.4%; 41.2% of the cases reported a feeling of sadness during the notification, 29.4% felt dizzy and 29.4% revealed a stress. Twenty-one doctors had felt the need of support and a psychologist consultation to talk and express themselves. A percentage of 97% of physicians said they had never received any training on the death notification and felt that training in this sense was useful and necessary. Conclusion: notification of death remains a difficult test, it requires preparation as well as learning by training especially when it comes to announcing the death of a child.},
     year = {2020}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Death Announcement: Difficulties and Pediatricians’ Experiences
    AU  - Mariam Lagrine
    AU  - Fatiha Bennaoui
    AU  - Nadia El Idrissi Slitine
    AU  - Fadl Mrabih Rabou Maoulainine
    Y1  - 2020/06/20
    PY  - 2020
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijpbs.20200502.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ijpbs.20200502.11
    T2  - International Journal of Psychological and Brain Sciences
    JF  - International Journal of Psychological and Brain Sciences
    JO  - International Journal of Psychological and Brain Sciences
    SP  - 28
    EP  - 30
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2575-1573
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijpbs.20200502.11
    AB  - Notification of death is a shock for the family but also for the caregiver. However, there is a tendency to forget the feelings of caregivers about this theme. The objective of our study is to evaluate doctors feelings and the difficulties during the announcement of deaths. Methods: A qualitative, exploratory study involving 34 doctors exercising at the pediatric center of the Mohammed VI university hospital in Marrakesh. To explore doctors' experiences in providing care, their emotional reactions to the patient's death, and their use of coping and social resources to manage their emotions. Results: An amount of doctors reported death between 5 to 10 times in 35.3% and between 10 to 20 times in 26.4%; 41.2% of the cases reported a feeling of sadness during the notification, 29.4% felt dizzy and 29.4% revealed a stress. Twenty-one doctors had felt the need of support and a psychologist consultation to talk and express themselves. A percentage of 97% of physicians said they had never received any training on the death notification and felt that training in this sense was useful and necessary. Conclusion: notification of death remains a difficult test, it requires preparation as well as learning by training especially when it comes to announcing the death of a child.
    VL  - 5
    IS  - 2
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Pediatric, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Mohammed VI University Hospital, Marrakesh, Morocco

  • Department of Pediatric, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Mohammed VI University Hospital, Marrakesh, Morocco

  • Department of Pediatric, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Mohammed VI University Hospital, Marrakesh, Morocco

  • Department of Pediatric, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Mohammed VI University Hospital, Marrakesh, Morocco

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