ABSTRACT
The impact of loss on participants was evident in their responses, and affirms current knowledge in relation to the emotional challenge that such situations evoke, as well as the culture of stress and coping in end of life care contexts. Caring for a person is present in people providing care, and caring about them is present in the larger group of people who have a social relationship with the person who is ill, whether or not they provide care. As well as sharing details of personal loss in the throes of being interviewed, nurses frequently indicated the emotional challenge of repeated exposure to situations of significant loss in practice. In getting to know their patients over a period of time, the death of a patient was a situation of loss for the nurse as well as the family. Nurses tended to grieve privately in order not to compromise their professional support for bereaved relatives and friends.
