Working Through Loss: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Physicians' Grief

Although grief is an unavoidable aspect of the human experience, it remains largely unspoken in the workplace, including healthcare. Physicians, in particular, minimize their grief due to professional norms and broader societal discourses, often viewing it as trivial or incomparable to the suffering they witness at work. This study examines how physicians narrate their grief to see which discourses are represented, enacted, and sometimes resisted in clinical practice. Physicians (n = 12) and residents (n = 5) from Atlantic Canada participated. Two rounds of interviews, 6 months apart, were conducted. Critical discourse analysis was utilized to make sense of the language participants use to describe their grief experiences. Two dominant discursive framings were identified: grief as an interference and grief as an invitation for meaning making. For many, navigating professional responsibilities while experiencing grief generated tensions and contradictions, evoking feelings of disequilibrium and frustration. For some, however, grief prompted deep self-reflection, leading to a shift in mindset or a realignment of values. Residents grappled most with the discursive boundaries of grief expression, unsure about when and with whom it might be acceptable. More experienced physicians articulated greater ease in discussing grief, often framing it as a source of deepened wisdom. Participants' discursive framing of grief appeared to change alongside their maturation as physicians, suggesting that status and hierarchy influence the extent to which physicians feel empowered to engage in grief-positive discourse. Formal education and institutional support to foster "grief literate" clinical environments could play a valuable role in supporting physician well-being.