Effectiveness of a Brief Intervention for Bereaved Individuals

Identification and Classification of the Bereaved Population Attending Nursing Consultations in Primary Care; Proposal and Effectiveness of a Brief Intervention

Grief is the response to the death of a loved one. The loss of a loved one requires a grieving process that allows one to adapt to the new situation. The main objective of this study is to identify people in a situation of bereavement who attend nursing consultations in Primary Care on the island of Tenerife, through opportunistic recruitment with the aim of carrying out a brief nursing intervention on those who are classified as being in a situation of bereavement.

Grief is a complex and multidimensional process involving an emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and spiritual response to loss. From a nursing perspective, it is recognized as important to address this phenomenon holistically, considering the personal, familial, and sociocultural factors that influence its experience. According to the NANDA-I taxonomy, the diagnoses of maladaptive grief, risk for maladaptive grief, and readiness for enhanced grief fall under the coping/stress tolerance domain, reflecting the need for interventions focused on adaptation and emotional well-being.

In the healthcare setting, the primary care nurse plays a key role as the professional who maintains continuous contact with individuals and their families. The nursing intervention Facilitating Grief (NIC 5290) integrates activities such as active listening, therapeutic communication, reality orientation, music therapy, and the use of personal journals. These strategies promote emotional expression, life reorganization, and personal resilience. The use of standardized instruments (such as the Psychosocial Nursing Diagnoses Questionnaire) allows for the identification of risk factors and the planning of evidence-based care.

The proposed secondary objectives are the following: To detect risk factors that may predispose patients attending nursing consultations to maladaptive grief; To understand the usual management of people in a state of grief and their care needs; To design a brief nursing intervention in Primary Care nursing consultations and evaluate its effectiveness; and To raise awareness among Primary Care professionals about grief, its characteristics and approach, through training activities.

The null hypothesis (H0) of this research establishes that, in the studied population, brief nursing intervention does not produce a significant effect on the effectiveness of nursing care in accompanying grief or in preventing its complications.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Be over 18 years old.
• That they answer affirmatively to at least one of the following two questions:

Have you lost a loved one in the last year? Are you grieving the loss of a loved one?

- After being informed, agree to participate in the study and sign the informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

• People with language barriers.
• People with cognitive impairment.
• People with severe sensory deficits.
• People with a history of anxiety disorders, diagnosed severe depression, or other problems (emotional, coping, etc.) that prevent them from participating in the collection of information necessary for this study.