Despite a plethora of research and published literature on grief, less is understood about the nature and specifics of the practices in which professionals, particularly nurses, engage in that are helpful to families. In this thesis, nursing practices and interventions with grieving families were examined in the context of an advanced nursing practice, Family Systems Nursing, in an outpatient clinical teaching and research unit. This study was an interpretive inquiry, using a lens of

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... al hermeneutics. Data were collected from records of the clinical interactions and three exemplar families were selected to be interviewed around their experiences of attending sessions to talk to a nurse about their grief. The three nurses who were involved in the clinical work were also interviewed. While the analysis helped to answer some of the initial questions of this study, it also uncovered other aspects of these therapeutic conversations not previously considered. The particular interventions that were offered appeared to be less significant, while the nature of the therapeutic relationship between the family and the nurse stood out. This highlighted the benefits of working with families as a unit of care in grief work, and also has implications for education of nurses and future research.