‘I Don't Want to See that the People Are Suffering’: Nurses in an Impoverished Community Talk About Caring for Women Following Stillbirths

An auto-ethnographic reflection on the nature of nursing in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic

In this article I discuss the effects on the patient experience of isolation nursing during the CoronaVirus Disease (COVID)-19 pandemic. An unintended consequence of isolation nursing has been to distance patients from nurses and emphasise the technical side of nursing while at the same time reducing the relational or affective potential of nursing. Such distanced forms of nursing normalise the distal patient in hospital. I consider ways in which this new form of distanced nursing has unwittingly contributed to the continued commodification of nursing care in the British NHS. Autoethnography is used to describe and reflect on the illness experience, the experiences of caregivers and the sociocultural organisation of health care. The findings discuss three areas of the illness experience: intimate nursing care; communication; the 'distanced' patient experience.

Unravelling the grief of involuntary pregnancy loss: A meta-ethnography of midwives' and nurses' emotional experiences

BACKGROUND

Parents who experience involuntary pregnancy loss encounter nurses and midwives when requiring care. But the environment in which this attention is provided turns it into a stressful and challenging event that favours the concealment of emotions. Literature supports the development of compassion in nurses and midwives who tend to parents who experience pregnancy losses.

AIM

To synthesise the emotional experiences of midwives and nurses when caring for parents who have suffered an involuntary pregnancy loss.

METHOD

This is a synthesis of qualitative studies following Noblit and Hare's interpretive meta-ethnography. Eleven studies met the research objective and inclusion criteria.

RESULTS

An overarching metaphor, 'Unravelling the grief of loss', accompanied by four major themes provided interpretive explanations to the experiences of midwives and nurses in caring for involuntary pregnancy losses: 'Pulling the thread' - looking for the meaning of loss; 'Yarn entanglement degree' - determinants for grief expression; 'Detangling tools' - focusing on the loss; and 'Fraying the thread' - moving away from the loss.

DISCUSSION

The provision of whole care to these parents requires midwifery and nursing training and continued education. Furthermore, the organisational culture should prioritise the health and well-being of midwives and nurses.

CONCLUSION

Midwives and nurses encounter the parents' loss in care and personally in various ways and give meaning to the loss conditioned by personal and professional determinants. They unravel the grief of loss by looking for the meaning, expressing their grief, focusing and moving away from the loss.