Meaningful Messages From Grief Workshop Participants: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Study

Although there is an increased need for delivery of bereavement care, many health care providers in acute care hospital settings feel inadequately prepared to deliver quality grief support, have lack of time, and have inexperience in provision of bereavement care. As a result, although families would like health care providers to offer bereavement support, they are inadequately trained and susceptible to burnout, resulting in families not having their needs met. The purpose of this qualitative study was to uncover the social process occurring in a bereavement education workshop titled "How to Care, What to Say" offered to health care providers. The goal of the workshop was to improve delivery of care for the dying and their family by providing holistic care to the family before, during, and after the death of a loved one. Past grief workshop participants who cared for the bereaved were interviewed, and data were analyzed and synthesized using constructivist grounded theory. Individual interviews and focus group data revealed participants' perceptions, learnings, and potential integration of the workshop into practice. The overarching theory of providing bereavement care that emerged from the data is "a relational process of understanding knowledge, self-awareness, moral responsibilities, and advancing grief competencies of providing holistic grief support."