Leading through COVID-19: understanding and supporting grief and loss

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an environment in which grief and loss are being experienced collectively. This grief can lead to increased burnout, decreased productivity, and increased likelihood of job turnover. With health care workers already facing increased risks because of their frontline pandemic responsibilities, it is important to provide leaders with knowledge and tools to support their grieving team members. Understanding the Kübler-Ross grief model, as well as grief-related concepts such as anticipatory grief, disenfranchised grief, moral injury, and complicated grief, will help leaders provide normalizing support. This approach may include building and fostering trusting relationships, engaging in self-reflection, participating in supportive conversations, and, when appropriate, sharing information around grief-support resources. There is no universal timeline for the resolution of grief; mental health impacts can last for many months and can continue to resurface for years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we educated health care workers around the issues of grief and loss by focusing on the relationship side of the Wheel of Change, interviewing people with expertise in the area, holding town hall meetings, and hosting online “coffee and chat” sessions for physicians. We recommend relying less on policy development and, instead, focus on strengthening workplace relationships and creating opportunities for connection and discussions.