Loss and Grief: Personal Stories of Doctors and Other Healthcare Professionals

Loss and Grief is a unique collection of personal narratives that chronicle the journeys of doctors and other healthcare professionals who have been personally impacted by life-altering losses. Edited by supportive care medicine and grief counseling practitioners, the narratives reveal losses of cherished loved ones, integrity, dreams, and naive views of colleagues. The authors learned that the professional veneer was too thin to be instructive or protective, and that such openly shared feelings of isolation and suffering will humanize the loss experience, ignite prospective discussions, and illuminate opportunities for education, research, and interventions to prepare us for multiple loss experiences.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 264 pages
Publication date: 13 October 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

Loss and Grief: Personal Stories of Doctors and Other Healthcare Professionals is a captivating anthology that delves into the deeply personal accounts of doctors and other healthcare professionals who have been profoundly affected by life-altering losses. Edited by esteemed experts in supportive care medicine and grief counseling, these narratives offer unflinching, first-person perspectives, allowing authors to share their own experiences from the vantage point of walking in their own shoes. The narratives unveil a range of profound losses, including the loss of cherished loved ones, integrity, dreams, and naive views of colleagues, as well as the lack of institutional support for these inevitable and challenging experiences.

Despite the narrators' established positions of leadership in their respective fields, the profound impact of serious loss brought them back to the core of their essential selves. They discovered that the professional veneer, while valuable in many respects, was insufficient to provide guidance or protection in the face of such profound emotional distress. Readers may find resonance with their own painful experiences and memories, while others may ponder how they will navigate their own future when faced with the inevitability of loss and grief.

In Loss and Grief, our primary aspiration is to humanize the loss experience, foster prospective discussions, and highlight opportunities for education, research, and interventions to equip us with the skills and knowledge necessary to navigate multiple loss experiences that are an integral part of life. Through these deeply personal narratives, we hope to shed light on the isolation and suffering that often accompany loss, fostering a deeper understanding and empathy for those who have endured such profound heartbreak.

Dimension: 235 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780197524534