Worden (1982) identified four tasks of mourning that are equally applicable to staff. Accepting the reality of the loss, although painful, is necessary for healing to occur. It may sometimes feel as if the nurse in end-of-life care is in chronic grieving because of the number of dying clients. But denying the emotion pain, especially of a favored patient, only slow or inhibits the healing process from occurring.
Although more obvious in the significant others, experiencing the pain of the loss also occurs in the staff, including anger, depression, and guilt. Healing support of each other involves encouraging the expression of feelings and emotions such as sadness, anger, guilt, resentment, and pain. Validating the normalcy of the feelings and emotions is also important. One should identify coping strategies that might work or are not working; forgive oneself and others; and remember shared experiences with the deceased client.