Normal Characteristics of Stages of Grief (Davidson,1984)
A. Shock and Disbelief: 24 hours to 3 weeks
1. Resistance to stimuli and denial
2. Difficulty in making judgments
3. Impeded functioning
4. Emotional outbursts
5. Stunned feelings
6. Extreme sensitivity to stimuli
B. Searching and yearning: 3 weeks to 4 months with occasional recurrences
1. Anger and guilt
2. Restless and impatience
3. Ambiguity
4. Testing of reality
C. Disorientation: Intensity lifts by 7 months
1. Disorganization
2. Depression and lowered self-esteem
3. Guilt
4. Anorexia
5. Awareness of reality and increasing acceptance of death
D. Reorganization: 18 months to 24 months
1. Sense of release
2. Renewed energy and the ability to plan for the future
3. Better judgment
4. Stable eating and sleeping patterns
5. Stabilization of old relationships and formation of new ones
Six Phases of Grief (Engel,1964)
A. Shock and Disbelief
---The person has stunned feelings and refuses to accept loss; the loss is accepted intellectually but denied emotionally
B. Developing Awareness
---The reality of the loss begins to penetrate the person's consciousness and directs anger at agency, nurses and others
C. Restitution
---The person engages in various rituals of mourning
D. Resolving the Loss
---The person thinks over and talks about the memories of the lost person, attempts to deal with painful void, but is still unable to accept new person/object to replace lost person/object
E. Idealization
---The grieving individual unconsciously internalized the admired qualities of the lost person, represses all negative and hostile feelings toward the lost person and produces only desirable features of the lost person
F. Outcome
---Several factors affect the outcome of grief, among which are the degree of dependence on relationship, degree of ambivalence toward the lost person, and number and nature of other relationships and previous grief experience
Five Stages of Grieving (Kubler-Ross,1969)
