Despite working in a highly stressful nursing unit and accepting additional shifts, a new nurse has a strategy to prevent burnout. Which strategy will be best for the nurse to use?

Choice A reason: Normal grief involves sadness and adjustment after loss, typically resolving within months. The nurse’s ongoing distress, sobbing, and poor performance 2 years post-loss suggest persistent, impairing grief, beyond normal expectations. This intensity and duration align with complicated grief, making normal grief incorrect.

Choice B reason: Complicated grief involves intense, prolonged symptoms that impair functioning, like the nurse’s deteriorating work and home life 2 years after spousal loss. Sobbing and feeling “falling apart” indicate unresolved grief, disrupting daily life, making this the correct type, as it reflects significant, ongoing emotional distress.

Choice C reason: Prolonged grief is a specific diagnosis with criteria like yearning or preoccupation persisting beyond 6-12 months. While similar, complicated grief is a broader term encompassing the nurse’s functional impairment and emotional collapse, making it more appropriate for the described severity and impact on work and home.

Choice D reason: Disenfranchised grief occurs when loss is not socially acknowledged, like a pet’s death. Spousal loss is recognized, and the nurse’s distress is overt, not hidden. The symptoms align with complicated grief’s intensity and duration, not disenfranchised grief, making this incorrect.

Choice A reason: Health promotion involves teaching lifestyle changes, not physical touch or emotional support, as seen here. Presence focuses on being with the patient empathetically. Assuming health promotion misaligns with the action, risking neglect of the patient’s emotional and spiritual needs, critical for comfort in terminal illness care settings.

Choice B reason: Offering transcendence involves fostering spiritual meaning, not physical touch or presence. The nurse’s hand-touching establishes emotional connection, not existential exploration. Assuming transcendence overlooks the relational aspect of presence, potentially missing the patient’s immediate need for comfort and connection in the context of terminal illness care.

Choice C reason: Establishing presence involves being physically and emotionally available, as shown by sitting and touching the patient’s hand. This empathetic connection, rooted in Watson’s caring theory, fosters comfort and trust, critical for terminally ill patients. Presence supports emotional well-being, ensuring holistic care and dignity in end-of-life situations.

Choice D reason: Doing for involves performing tasks like bathing, not emotional support through touch. The nurse’s action establishes presence, not task-oriented care. Assuming doing for risks misinterpreting the action, potentially neglecting the patient’s need for empathetic connection, essential for psychological comfort in terminal illness care.