Suggestions for dealing wiht pt. death

mac23 · Nov 25, 2004

I am anursing student participating in a group project researching how nursing staff/health care professionals deal with the loss of a patient. Are there any rituals/acts you participate in as a unit or individually to acknowledge the death of a pt.? How does participating in a ritual/act help you cope with the death of a pt. more easily? I would appreciate any input, thanks!
Alissa

On our unit we have a committee that deals with patient deaths and berevement issues. It's worked out well because they are trained as berevement counselors and some staff are just not comfortable dealing with their own emotions let alone that of a grieveing family. If we know a baby is going to die we usually will call in that baby's primary nursing team (if those nurses have indicated she wants to be notified). We'll call the chaplain to support the family if that's what they want; if not we call them anyway to help support the staff and any other families that might be visiting their babies. We put purple ribbons outside the door to the room the baby is in so that staff knows what's going on in that room so that for instance you won't have someone going in the room asking staff if they want to order food. We allow the family to have as much time as they want with the baby and they can pretty much do whatever they want to. Some families have taken the baby outside before they died, some just want to be in a room by themselves, it depends on the family. We take pictures of the baby, do clay hand and feet molds, take a little bit of the baby's hair, the id band, ink hand and feet prints, things like that and offer them to the family. If they say they don't want them we keep them on file for a year in case they change their mind. We let the family participate in preparing the baby for the morgue (bathing and dressing) if they want. The hospital offers the option of parents taking the baby home and never to the morgue which some have chosen to do and from there they make their own arrangements. If parents don't pick that option, we put our babies in a beautifully done basket that is designed so that they can be buried in it as well and then they go to the morgue. But before that happens the parents can spend as much time with the baby as they want.

I personally haven't had a lot of babies die on me, but just 4 days ago my primary died. He was an ex 24 weeker that was 11 months old at the time of his death. This one hit me a little differently because I'd taken care of him so much and got to know the family so well. I dont' have any personal rituals except I always walk the baby down to the morgue along with the person that comes up to get him/her. I started doing this after watching one of the people come up and to get a baby that had died; the whole way she handled the baby just rubbed me the wrong way, so that's when i started walking to the morgue with the baby; other than that I'll usually leave the unit for a few minutes just to get myself together and them make myself available to the family for whatever they need. If I connected with the family I'll try and go to the funeral if I can. Other than that I just rely on my own spirituality to get me through the death of a patient.

The berevement committee sends cards 1 week, 1 month, 6 months and then one year after the death. Also a member of our berevement committe will call the family to see how they are doing and will let the family cue them in as to how much contact they want from the hospital. They also have connections to so some programs that will provide free counseling or support groups to the family.

hope that helps some.