BMJ  2003;327 (26 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7408.0-a

Caring for dying patients is a source of satisfaction and of distress

The longer a doctor cares for a patient, the more affected he or she is when that patient dies. Redinbaugh and colleagues (p 185) surveyed 188 doctors' emotional reactions to recent deaths of patients in two American teaching hospitals. The patients who died were usually new to the doctors, and most doctors did not feel close to them. Still, most reported moderate levels of emotional distress, and these increased the longer they cared for the patient. Interns (house officers) and female doctors reported the greatest needs for emotional support. Caring for dying patients is part of all doctors' clinical work, but it rarely gets explored. The authors say that further research is needed on how senior doctors might help to support junior doctors after the death of a patient.

Credit: PHOTONICA

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Doctors' emotional reactions to recent death of a patient: cross sectional study of hospital doctors

Ellen M Redinbaugh, Amy M Sullivan, Susan D Block, Nina M Gadmer, Matthew Lakoma, Ann M Mitchell, Deborah Seltzer, Jennifer Wolford, and Robert M Arnold
BMJ 2003 327: 185. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]