NURSING CARE FOR WOMEN EXPERIENCING GRIEF AFTER SPONTANEOUS ABORTION: THROUGH WATSON’S THEORY

Abstract

Gestational loss is an experience of intense emotional suffering for women and their families, requiring humanized, empathetic, and comprehensive nursing care. This study aimed to reflect on empathy in nursing care for women grieving after spontaneous abortion, based on Jean Watson’s Theory of Human Caring, and to develop a Nursing Care Systematization (SAE) directed toward this context. This is a quantitative-qualitative, descriptive, exploratory, and comparative study, associated with a literature review conducted in national and international scientific databases between 2016 and 2025. Nurses from Primary Health Care in Tambaú, São Paulo, Brazil, participated by completing a semi-structured questionnaire. The results demonstrated recognition of the importance of SAE in promoting humanized, safe, empathetic, and comprehensive care, although difficulties related to work overload, lack of time, and application of the NANDA-I, NIC, and NOC taxonomies were identified. Management of emotional suffering and grief was identified as an important challenge in caring for women experiencing gestational loss. As a product, a specific SAE was developed, accompanied by an educational folder for nurses. It is concluded that systematized care grounded in Watson’s Theory can improve nursing care by strengthening welcoming practices, empathy, emotional support, and comprehensive care throughout the process of gestational bereavement.