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Barriers and facilitators in coping with patient death in clinical oncology

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to explore barriers and facilitators in coping with patient death in the oncology context.

Methods

The grounded theory method was used to collect and analyze the data. Twenty-two oncologists were interviewed between March 2013 and June 2014 from three adult oncology centers. Oncologists were at different stages of their careers and varied in their sub-specialties, gender, and personal and professional backgrounds.

Results

The analysis revealed that facilitators to coping with patient death included cognitive, behavioral, relational, professional, and spiritual coping strategies. Behavioral coping strategies included sports, hobbies, entertainment, and taking vacations. Cognitive strategies included accepting and normalizing death and focusing on the positive, and on successes in the practice of oncology. Relational coping strategies included accessing social support from family, friends, and colleagues. Professional coping strategies included focusing on work, withdrawing from patients at end of life, and compartmentalization. Spiritual coping strategies included turning to faith and religious coping. Oncologists also reported a number of challenges and barriers in coping effectively with patient deaths. These included challenges in accessing social support, challenges that were related to gender and expression of emotion, and challenges in maintaining emotional boundaries when patients died.

Conclusions

Oncologists turn to a number of diverse coping strategies in dealing with patient death, but many obstacles to accessing this support were reported. Targeted interventions for managing and coping with grief related to patient death need to be developed to support oncologists in their emotionally difficult work.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, PO Box 653, 84105, Beersheba, Israel

    Leeat Granek

  2. The Department of Oncology, Soroka University Medical Center, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba, Israel

    Samuel Ariad

  3. Gender Studies Program, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba, Israel

    Shahar Shapira

  4. Division of Oncology, Rambam Health Care Campus and Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    Gil Bar-Sela

  5. Radiation Oncology Department, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat-Gan, Israel

    Merav Ben-David

  6. The Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel

    Merav Ben-David

Authors
  1. Leeat Granek
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  2. Samuel Ariad
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  3. Shahar Shapira
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  4. Gil Bar-Sela
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  5. Merav Ben-David
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Leeat Granek.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Granek, L., Ariad, S., Shapira, S. et al. Barriers and facilitators in coping with patient death in clinical oncology. Support Care Cancer 24, 4219–4227 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-016-3249-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-016-3249-4

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