Skip to main content

Riding the wave: Making sense of anticipatory grief

When there is an awareness of loss that is coming, anticipatory grief is a form of mourning that can occur before the actual loss.  When family members of cancer patients, spouses, partners, adult children, or others see that the future for their loved one is limited, they may experience anticipatory grief. Join us for a webinar to learn about how grief shows up in families even before someone has died, and how to respond to this sensitively as a healthcare professional.

This webinar is intended for medical and healthcare professionals such as:

  • medical assistants and EMTs
  • nurses and nursing students
  • advanced practice providers (APRN, PA)
  • medical students, physicians
  • rehab therapists (OT, PT)

Outcomes

  • Demonstrate awareness of the emotional responses of parents anticipating potential death, or anticipating the loss of an imagined future
  • Communicate more sensitively and confidently with patients and families when there is an anticipated loss
  • Describe the the impact of how we communicate about predicted losses
  • Reflect on the ways in which working with grieving families impacts us as healthcare professionals to identify ways of supporting ourselves