Elisabeth K bler-Ross, MD, was the first author to delineate five stages of grieving and dying. Nurses should also be aware of their own feelings. Denial is the avoidance of death's inevitability. Patients or families may speak or act as if death will not occur. When confronted, they may first appear dazed and unaware of what's happening.
Denial can be therapeutic when it allows gradual adjustment to the news.
Anger, the most intense grief reaction, arises when people realize that death and loss will actually occur. Anger may be directed at healthcare providers, family members, patients, God, or the world in general. Family members may be angry with the dying person for leaving them. They may also feel guilty for still having a life or for not having done or said all the things that they might have wished. Bargaining happens when family members attempt to stall or to manipulate the outcome, death.