AN EXPLORATION OF ANTICIPATORY GRIEF - THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF PEOPLEDURING THEIR SPOUSES TERMINAL ILLNESS AND IN BEREAVEMENT

Anticipatory grief has been the subject of much debate since Lindemann first coined the term to describe premature mourning. Much of the res earch in this area takes a positivist approach focusing on the effect of anticipatory grief on bereavement. In contrast, this study, explore s anticipatory grief through a Heideggerian phenomenological approach to elicit the experience of anticipatory grief. Unstructured interview s were conducted with four participants. The resulting data were inter preted using hermeneutics and evaluated using the criteria identified by Madison. The themes arising from this interpretation identify the c hange the participants experienced. Although these findings are limite d to four participants, they are offered to raise awareness of the imp act of multiple role loss and the impact of diagnosis on supporting pa rtners. The findings also raise ways in which nurses might support peo ple experiencing loss.