ABSTRACT
Healthcare workers in hospitals have become a significant support system for the family of the terminally ill. The trauma of terminal illness is compounded by the stress of being in a hospital environment, separated from the familiar comfort of one's own bed and one's own home with all the familiar sights and sounds and smells of one's family's daily activities. The need for hospitalization is a stressful situation even under the best of circumstances and conditions. And for terminal patients and their families, that problems are to be anticipated should be a foregone conclusion. Families experience episodes of grief and need to work through their feelings and to grow through the experience in ways very similar to the emotional stages that the patients struggle through. While families are experiencing the various stages of grief, and when denial is strong, family members may be unable to visit the patient.
