Staff grief and support systems for Japanese health care professionals working in palliative care.
OBJECTIVE
This article is a literature report on grief issues for health care professionals, undertaken to identify Japanese nurses' grief experience when they work in palliative care units. Health care professionals' grief experience and its impact have not been well understood or identified as a significant issue in Japan.


METHODS
Published articles relating to this study were searched using electronic catalogues such as CINAHL and PsycINFO, books, and research publications. Key words used for the search were "grief," "palliative care," "nurse," "staff support," and "Japan." Both English and Japanese were used for the literature search in order to collect information regarding nurses' grief and support systems in Japan and elsewhere. The literature search covered the period 1990-2006 inclusive.


RESULTS
This article explores these issues in the literature as preparation for establishing a study that will particularly look at the influence of nurses' grief on the quality of care provided.


CONCLUSIONS
Consideration of Japanese culture as it relates to death and dying and to nursing culture is a significant part of this work.
Shimoinaba
Kaori
K
School of Nursing and Midwifery, Monash University, Victoria, Australia. kaori.shimoinaba@med.monash.edu.au
O'Connor
Margaret
M
Lee
Susan
S
Greaves
Judi
J
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000523:psychology; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003469:Culture; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007564:Japan; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000523:psychology*; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012944:Social Support; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000523:psychology*