What is Professional Grief?

Ignore. Suppress. Hide. Work in high-loss healthcare environments commonly demands turning away from one’s interior experiences in order to rapidly turn toward the next patient. In a culture that discourages vulnerability, how can a care provider effectively deal with the challenging emotions that naturally arise when faced with death, especially now in this critical time of pandemic? Thankfully, The Healer’s Burden: Stories and Poems of Professional Grief makes a space to tend this occult grief, and not a moment too soon. In a broad array of artistic and accessible perspectives, healthcare workers from multiple disciplines bravely pull back the curtain on their experiences of loss. Despite delving into death, The Healer’s Burden eschews the twin traps of despair on the one hand and platitude on the other. Using principles of narrative medicine, the editors catalyze a much-needed conversation about professional grief by including thoughtful questions and writing prompts. This book is a must for educators and clinicians alike who wish to constructively engage with rather than avoid their experiences of patient death.

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For a 15% discount on bulk purchases (ten or more copies), please go to the UICCOM Store and enter the coupon code hbbulkorder.

With a foreword by Rana Awdish, MD, author of LA Times best-selling memoir In Shock
“Reckoning with grief is no small task. But ignoring it is no longer necessary. ”

A publication of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.

For more information or to consult with the editors, email us at: editors@healersburden.com