Healthcare providers like nurses, doctors, and certified nurse assistants become close to their patients, and while this is usually positive, it can be draining too. Sometimes, these providers are not able to express their emotions when someone dies for many reasons such as they did not learn how to do this in school. The hardest reactions are from people who take care of very ill patients – they have something called ‘secondary trauma.’ When this happens, they feel connected to the patient and what they are going through, and it hurts them emotionally.

Healthcare providers are afraid that if they show emotion about a death, their coworkers will judge them, and they will be seen as unprofessional. This leads to pain and suffering that grows. They are also afraid that people outside of healthcare will not understand, so they do not share their pain. This can be a reason that people develop burnout, which is the inability to successfully do their job because of stress and mental pain.

Healthcare leadership must take the lead to help their employees. If people are showing hard emotions related to patient care, leadership has to help them. They should make them feel like they have positive achievements and encourage positive self-talk to reduce the risk of burnout. There should also be grief support policies in place to prevent problems before they happen. Interventions like these help with resilience, or being strong. Without help, healthcare providers can have bereavement overload.

Sometimes, people just need pure support, not trying to fix the problem. Coworkers who have experienced the same thing can help and show the griever their personal strengths. Everyone has to be involved when grieving in a healthcare environment occurs.