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Constructs and coping: physicians' responses to patient death.
Death Education
|February 5, 1984
Summary
Physicians' personal views on death influence how they cope with patient deaths. Those with higher death anxiety may use avoidance strategies, showing fewer physical symptoms when facing patient mortality.
Area of Science:
- Medical Psychology
- Physician Well-being
- Thanatology
Background:
- Physicians' personal death orientations can impact their professional responses.
- Understanding these orientations is crucial for supporting healthcare professionals.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the link between pediatric residents' personal attitudes toward death and their reactions to patient mortality.
- To explore how death orientations influence behavioral and psychophysiological responses in physicians.
Main Methods:
- Surveyed 25 pediatric residents using the Threat Index.
- Assessed residents' responses to vignettes about personal death.
- Correlated death orientations with behavioral and psychophysiological reactions.
Main Results:
- Specific death orientations were associated with distinct behavioral and psychophysiological reactions.
- Residents with high death threat and anxiety exhibited avoidance and denial strategies.
- These residents reported fewer psychophysiological symptoms when confronting patient death.
Conclusions:
- Physicians' personal death orientations significantly affect their coping mechanisms.
- Avoidance and denial may serve as coping strategies for anxious physicians facing patient death.
- Findings suggest implications for physician support and future research in end-of-life care training.