Grief in Health Care Professionals: When Screening for Major Depression Is Needed

We appreciate the important articles by Granek et al¹ and Shayne and Quill² regarding grief in health care professionals (HCPs). Although HCPs can, and often do, experience grief over patient loss, this important issue has not received the attention it deserves. Physicians form meaningful connections with their patients and have human responses to their deaths, including grief reactions.² The intensity of sadness, sense of loss, and possibly self-doubt varies, but even when intense and somewhat protracted, “normal” grief should not be confused with major depression.