Emotional Guilt In Nursing

Feeling guilt after a completed suicide by a patient on a psychiatric ward a nurse works in does not mean that the nurse is the one to blame. The nurse just feels that she did not do enough to prevent the suicide. As a result, the feeling of guilt has adverse effects on the nurse if not addressed. A nurse who approaches another for the feeling of guilt should thus be helped by a professional. The nurse feeling guilt needs to be taken through the various feelings of guilt, shame, stigma, and anger among others that a nurse feels after a successful suicide by a patient. This way, as noted by Schwartz, Cherry, Cabaniss and Douglas (2013), the nurse would understand what triggers the guiltiness and how to handle it. It is also advisable to effect
role-related groups in which the nurse feels supported and encouraged by other nurses in her group as they help her overcome the stigma. The nurse should also be encouraged to meet with the patient’s family to provide support and genuine condolences. This makes the nurse feel relieved after offering support to the bereaved family and thus helps to reduce the guilt feeling. The nurse feels satisfied with her help when offering judgment-free, non-defensive, and empathic space to listen to the family. By uniting with the family and helping them overcome the loss, the nurse who initially felt guilt feels relieved and also gets over the suicide. However, the nurse should understand that it is her to offer support to the bereaved family but not her to turn to the family for support. She should divulge any personal information that would burden the family. She should not blame the family or explain speculative hypotheses regarding the motivations of the patients (Schwartz, Cherry, Cabaniss & Douglas, 2013). The major reason the nurses meets with the family is to provide the required support so as to feel relieved.