My impression of the grief expert was that she needed several hundred hours of mental health continuing education and about 80mg/day of Strattera for her ADHD. She might need 30mg of Adderall in addition to the Strattera.
This old nurse's story about going with the grieving mother out into the rainstorm and standing over the grave with umbrellas was very poor nursing judgement. What kind of idiot stands in a thunderstorm with an metal umbrella (think electroshock therapy sans the hospital)? Second, any nursing professor should know that she should FACILITATE ORIENTATION TO REALITY. (The child had sadly passed away. The child was not aware that it was dark and raining outside.) In addition to not orienting that mom to reality, this old nurse was SUPPORTING the moms delusion (a big mental health no no). What exactly did the grief counselor do the next 500 times that this mom called her to go with her and stand over the grave with an umbrella?
This is a very important rule which should be taught to all nurses in their psych rotation: Never encourage any form of a delusion or irrational thinking. Dont argue with those who are delusional or irrational, just gently redirect their thoughts back towards reality if possible.
The old nurse should have offered to meet with the grieving mother to LISTEN to the mom talk about how her son was in the dark rainstorm. Then after listening, the nurse should have gently oriented her to reality/gently encouraged her to understand that her son was free from his fear of the dark and rainstorms. He wasnt experiencing fear any longer. He was not there to see the dark or feel the cold rain. The old nurse should have tried to decrease the moms anxiety about not being able to continue to protect/comfort her son. Instead, she reinforced this mom's anxiety so that every time it rained, this mom continued to experience anxiety.
I gave this professor an "F".