title: Relationships among actions, antecedents, and outcomes of grief care for bereaved caregivers: surveying visiting nurses throughout Japan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This research identified and analyzed relationships of grief care by visiting nurses using antecedent factors and grief care outcomes.
  
  
  METHODS
  A mailed, original, researcher-developed, self-administered questionnaire for visiting nurses employed at home-visit nursing care stations throughout Japan provided data which was then analyzed using multiple regression analyses. Grief care provided by nurses is divided into three scales: (i) grief care from beginning of home care to the terminal period (GCBT); (ii) grief care at deathbed (GCDB); and (iii) grief care after the patient's death (GCAD).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Valid responses were provided by 332 (90.7%) administrators and 1442 (76.1%) staff nurses. The data revealed that it was "years of experience as a visiting nurse" and "experience of learning grief care after the patient's death" that were significant to GCBT. Also, nurses' outcomes "learning opportunity" and "confidence in visiting nursing" were significant to GCBT and GCAD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Simply being told how to provide care to the patient during the terminal phase is inadequate. The care during this period seemed to require years of experience as a visiting nurse. Nurses should consider more effective educational methods to nurture this skill rather than wait for it to be acquired through experience. Implementation of grief care is an opportunity for receiving feedback on the care nurses provided. Grief care provides motivation for nursing and maintains mental health.
authors.affiliation: St Luke's College of Nursing, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Wakanako
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ono
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001601:Bereavement; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D064691:Nurses, Community Health
keywords: family caregiver; grief care; home visit; multiple regression analysis; outcome