PBC Advanced Professional Practice 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which theoretical framework specifically addresses the oscillation between loss-oriented and restoration-oriented coping in bereaved parents?
- Kübler-Ross's Five Stages of Grief
- Worden's Tasks of Mourning
- Stroebe and Schut's Dual Process Model (Correct answer)
- Bowlby's Attachment Theory
Correct answer: Stroebe and Schut's Dual Process Model
The Dual Process Model describes healthy grief as oscillating between confronting the loss and attending to life changes and restoration.
Question 2: A perinatal bereavement nurse is supporting a father who says he 'has to stay strong' for his partner and denies his own grief. Which response reflects advanced practice?
- Agree that his partner needs his support right now
- Affirm that staying strong is an important role in the family
- Gently normalize that fathers grieve too and deserve their own support (Correct answer)
- Schedule a separate counseling session without explaining why
Correct answer: Gently normalize that fathers grieve too and deserve their own support
Normalizing paternal grief and making support explicitly available challenges the cultural expectation that fathers must suppress their grief.
Question 3: When crafting a bereavement care plan for a family from a culture that views discussing death as taboo, the most appropriate first step is:
- Implement the hospital's standard bereavement protocol
- Ask the family how they would like to talk about and remember their baby (Correct answer)
- Consult a cultural liaison before meeting with the family
- Provide written resources in the family's language about grief
Correct answer: Ask the family how they would like to talk about and remember their baby
Asking the family directly how they wish to engage respects cultural individuality and avoids assumptions based on group identity.
Question 4: Which documentation practice is most critical in perinatal bereavement care to ensure continuity across care shifts?
- Logging all memory items offered and the family's response (Correct answer)
- Recording the nurse's personal grief reactions for supervision
- Noting fetal weight and gestational age in the bereavement chart
- Filing all condolence cards in the medical record
Correct answer: Logging all memory items offered and the family's response
Documenting every offered intervention and the family's response ensures subsequent caregivers can provide consistent, informed support.
Question 5: A hospital is evaluating its perinatal bereavement program. Which outcome measure best reflects quality of family-centered bereavement care?
- Number of memory boxes distributed per month
- Post-discharge family satisfaction surveys and grief follow-up contact rates (Correct answer)
- Percentage of staff who completed bereavement training
- Reduction in time from delivery to discharge for bereaved families
Correct answer: Post-discharge family satisfaction surveys and grief follow-up contact rates
Family satisfaction data and follow-up contact rates directly measure how well the program meets bereaved families' needs and maintains connection.
Question 6: A parent whose baby died from a chromosomal anomaly asks whether the same thing will happen in a future pregnancy. The bereavement specialist's most appropriate response is to:
- Explain the recurrence risk based on the specific anomaly
- Refer the parent to a genetic counselor for accurate recurrence information (Correct answer)
- Reassure the parent that most subsequent pregnancies are healthy
- Avoid discussing future pregnancies to keep focus on the current grief
Correct answer: Refer the parent to a genetic counselor for accurate recurrence information
Referring to a genetic counselor ensures the family receives accurate, personalized recurrence risk information beyond the bereavement specialist's scope.
Question 7: Which scenario best illustrates complicated grief (prolonged grief disorder) in a bereaved parent one year after a perinatal loss?
- Crying when hearing the baby's due date mentioned
- Unable to return to work, persistent disbelief the death occurred, yearning daily (Correct answer)
- Occasionally feeling sad when seeing newborns
- Having difficulty deciding whether to try to conceive again
Correct answer: Unable to return to work, persistent disbelief the death occurred, yearning daily
Persistent functional impairment, disbelief, and daily intense yearning at one year post-loss are hallmarks of prolonged grief disorder requiring clinical referral.
PBC Advanced Professional Practice 3
Which theoretical framework specifically addresses the oscillation between loss-oriented and restoration-oriented coping in bereaved parents?