ABSTRACT
Nurses are uniquely qualified to address the needs of such patients, with communication skills in empathic listening and medical knowledge, and they have a significant role to play in patients' and their families' experiencing of chronic sorrow. It is very likely that those with chronic sorrow will interact with nursing professionals, often early in the course of their journey. The concept of chronic sorrow is considered a middle-range theory in nursing. As opposed to grand theories, middle-range nursing theories are aimed at specific phenomena, such as pain, stress, or in this instance chronic sorrow, which make them limited in scope but capable of generating research into the issue. They are specific to nursing actions related to the outcomes of patients and their families. Numerous studies have been done by nursing researchers concerning the identification of chronic sorrow in various patient populations and the implications for nursing care encompassing the life span.
