Patient death in a long-term care hospital. A study of the effect on nursing staff

1. The most common ways in which staff were affected by patient death were "low morale" and "loss of efficacy at work." 2. Staff most commonly reported coping with death by "sharing feelings," knowing that their "work contributed to a good death" and by "placing death in a good light," although one in five nurses reported no strategy for dealing with patient death. 3. Nurses who are most affected by patient death have a more difficult time caring for younger patients, tend to "take their stress home" and are more likely to base their nursing care on a personal relationship with the patient, than nurses who are less affected.