Abstract

Introduction: grief is a life crisis that people go through when a loved one dies, from the perspective of the intermediate theory of Gaskill, Lermann and Hainsworth, supported the Dysfunctional Grief Theory, which argues that it is necessary to propose management methods to face the duel that leads the individual to reestablish their emotional stability. Objective: to understand the dysfunctional mourning of the relatives of patients who died of COVID-19, according to the theory of Gaskill, Lermann and Hainsworth. Methods: the methodological theoretical approach was the social phenomenology of Alfred Schütz. The scenario, the main hospitals of the city of Lima. The sample, made up of 14 family members, selected by saturation of speeches, using the phenomenological interview as a data collection technique, an interview guide as an instrument and thematic analysis was used for data analysis. Results: phenomenological analysis was used with ideographic and nomothetic analysis, which gave rise to the following categories: Category I: manifesting experiences lived in the face of the loss of their loved one due to COVID-19. Category II: coping with the grieving process when a loved one dies unexpectedly from COVID-19. Category III: feeling resignation at the loss of your loved one. Conclusions: the categories found allow us to understand the dysfunctional grief experienced by family members during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, ranging from misunderstanding to acceptance of the loss of a loved one in an untimely manner due to this disease that has harmed humanity. There is enough conceptual and theoretical framework on grief to increase the preparation of health and nursing personnel.