Background and objective: Caring for critically-ill and dying patients is widely recognised as a central stressor in oncology and palliative-care staff. Past research in this area has mostly focused on medical staff, and the impact of patient deaths on other professionals has received only limited attention. This study aimed to explore how psychotherapists experience and cope with the death of the cancer patients in their care, and whether these experiences promote personal and/or professional growth. Methods: an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design was adopted. Participants were psychotherapists working with adult cancer- and palliative-care patients within UK hospices. In the qualitative phase, seven semi-structured interviews were conducted and examined using thematic analysis. In the quantitative phase, 28 participants completed an online questionnaire designed to evaluate the incidence within the target population of the themes identified in the qualitative phase. Findings: Grief appeared as hospice psychotherapists' main immediate response to client deaths. Participants used coping strategies aiming to facilitate emotional closure, and to foster emotional and cognitive processing. These strategies included conducting personal rituals, receiving support from colleagues and clinical supervision. Several factors hindering these coping strategies were identified, but the vast majority were shared by only a small minority of participants (e.g. feeling disenfranchised in their grief for clients). Repeated exposure to client death caused participants to feel emotionally and physically drained (and for some leading to greater fear of illness and dying). It also affected their outlook on life positively, leading to personal growth. Participants managed the negative long-term impact of their work using self-care strategies, which included working in cancer- and palliative-care settings on a part-time basis, and engaging in creative and future-oriented activities promoting a sense of hope, possibilities, and growth. Conclusion and implications: Although many hospice psychotherapists repeatedly experience grief following the deaths of their clients, most appear able to manage the immediate and long-term impacts of their work. Working in proximity to illness and death is seen as deeply challenging but at the same time as promoting personal growth, and to enhance and bring meaning to hospice psychotherapists' lives. Furthermore, the mixed-methods design adopted here provides evidence that while the qualitative methods employed produced rich data, the addition of a simple quantitative survey allowed to put these in perspective about the wider group of hospice psychotherapists. I argue that this finding supports the call, prevalent in the mixed-methods research literature, to question the segregation of qualitative and quantitative methods.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:740424 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Danillon, Didier |
| Contributors | Hanley, Terry ; Winter, Laura |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/the-impact-of-client-death-on-cancercare-psychotherapists-practicing-in-hospices-a-mixedmethods-study(0700cf5e-6f82-40ac-948c-00cfe4662126).html |
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