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The meaning of patient deaths is key to understanding professional bereavement. To validate its construct, we applied partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to online survey data from 563 Chinese physicians and nurses. Both the personal meaning and professional meaning contribute significantly while not interchangeably to the meaning of patient deaths. In addition to the loss of an acquaintance, the loss of a valuable life, and the loss of a professional goal, patient deaths can also mean trauma, bad luck, identity crisis, a warning, a learning opportunity, and a time to empathize with others' sufferings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bereavement during the COVID‐19 pandemic may have some unique characteristics that become potential risk factors (e.g., absence of grief rituals, no opportunity to say goodbye to the deceased and loneliness caused by social distancing) for acute grief. Avoidance processes could be significant mediators in the context of the pandemic. The current study aimed to investigate whether and how these COVID‐19‐related risk factors were related to acute grief severity. Bereaved adults (n = 319) who lost significant others during the COVID‐19 pandemic completed a self‐report questionnaire package measuring COVID‐19‐related factors, grief severity and depressive and anxious avoidance. Regression analyses suggested that among the three potential risk factors (loneliness, grief rituals and opportunity to say goodbye), loneliness was significantly associated with acute grief after controlling for basic demographic and loss‐related information. Structural equation models suggested that depressive avoidance and anxious avoidance partially mediated the associations of loneliness with acute grief severity. The findings indicate that dealing with loss during the COVID‐19 pandemic warrants further exploration concerning how potential environmental risk factors may impede adaptation to loss. Depressive and anxious avoidance processes may play important roles in grief interventions for isolated and lonely bereaved people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong experienced the SARS pandemic in 2003. Seventeen years later, the Covid-19 pandemic now challenges Hong Kong and the world. This study aims to unveil the impact of the pandemic on health social workers. One hundred and sixty-six health care social workers in Hong Kong were recruited to join a cross-sectional online survey from November 2020 to March 2021. This paper includes the analysis of the demographic information, fear of contamination, resilience, perceived social support and physical health only. Irrespective of the demographic background, the level of fear of contamination, resilience, perceived social support and physical health were similar. The mean scores of the two dimensions of fear of contamination (Harm avoidance: m = 7.49, s.d. = 3.25; Disgust avoidance: m = 7.75, s.d. = 2.90) were higher than those of general public and clinical samples with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. No moderation effects were found in resilience and perceived social support in the relationship of fear of contamination and physical health. Instead, direct effects were shown.The impact of the pandemic on health social workers was universal. Psychoeducational programs to alleviate the fear of contamination and organizational-level interventions to improve workplace social support are highly needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]