The Kubler-Ross Theory Of Dying

The Kubler-Ross Theory of dying is a theory that was developed by Elisabeth Kubler Ross in 1969 derived from her observations of her terminally ill patients. After reviewing this information she theorized that there were 5 stages of dying. She proposed 5 stages of dying are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and final acceptance. These stages are common feelings that a dying person tends to have.
This theory suggests that a person may go through stages before death. Denial is the stage where the person is refusing to accept there terms of death. They are in disbelief of the statements in regards to their death and think that they must be wrong. Also in this stage people can have mixed feelings one time they accept the doctor’s word and
The patient may also look towards their future and make plans about it as though the diagnosis they received was wrong. Denial is a difficult stage in which the client is very vulnerable. This makes the Doctors job of delivering results and the medical diagnosis even more difficult. Anger is the stage that the person is feeling anger about their impending death. Anger works hand and hand with denial. Bargaining is the stage that people try to make a deal with their god to put off their death. For example the client saying I will be good to the world just let me live 1 more year. Depression is the stage where they come to realization with their terms of dying. They may feel hopeless or at a loss for their life. They may become sad to be leaving their loved ones during this stage. During the final acceptance stage the patient accepts that they are going to die. The patient
Many times patients in the anger stage resent the healthy people and the medical staff. Their thoughts are probably because of the anger in this stage. The staff and family members need to understand that this is a typical thought process in this stage, and the patient may not really believe the staff is at fault and that this is an expression out of anger.
Like every other theory there can be criticism. The Kubler-Ross dying stage theory has been criticized in a few ways. One major way that this theory has been criticized is that staff may be imposing the Kubler-Ross death theory on their patients (Rathus, 2014). Imposing this theory on the patients can create many problems. When staff do this they try to fit the patient into their guidelines, however as we know every patient is different so this does not work to the patients benefit. Also in HDEV 3 Textbook mentions that
Joan Retsinas notes: that Kubler –Ross stages are limited to cases in which people receive a diagnosis of a terminal illness (Rathus, 2014).
This brings us to another criticism of this theory because more people die of old age then they do of terminal illness. It was also found that feelings that are in Kubler Ross theory can also be seen in earlier stages of the life. Also in