Effects of The Bereavement Program to Prevent Complicated Grief of Bereaved Parents who Lose a Child from Illness
Keywords:
pediatric palliative care, bereavement, bereaved parentsAbstract
The death of a child from illness has an impact on grief and bereavement of bereaved parents and family members. A literature review found that parents who had lost a child were at risk of developing complicated grief which affected in many dimensions. The aim of this study was to study the effects of the bereavement care program to prevent complicated grief of bereaved parents who lost a child from illness. The research was a quasi-experimental study with control group post-test design. Twenty-eight bereaved parents were recruited using purposive sampling. They were divided into either the control groups or the intervention groups, 14 people for each group. The control group received routine nursing care. The experimental group received the bereavement care program for parents who lost a child from illness, which was designed based on the Five Stages of Grief (Kubler-Ross) Model and Continuing Bonds Theory.The program comprised five sessions in provision of education, guidance, and support for bereavement care, 30 minutes for each session. The Inventory of Complicated Grief Thai Version was used to measure grief at 6 months after child’s death. Comparison between grief scores of the intervention group and those of the control group by analysis using Mann-Whitney U test.
The results showed that median grief score of the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group, with median score of 6 and 23, respectively (Mann-Whitney U Test = 32.5, p-value <.05). The results indicated that the bereavement care program was effective in preventing complicated grief in parents who lost a child from illness. Future studies should explore the effectiveness of bereavement care program on prevention of complicated grief in other online platforms and in other population groups.
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