Bereavement rooms

[Guest guest]

We are building a new hospital and are considering having a bereavement room for

families experiencing a perinatal/neonatal loss. It would be used for patients

to gather with their families after the loss. Do any of you have these and can

you give me any hints on what works and what doesn't?

Thanks,

Deb

[Guest guest]

How do they use them in the ER? Is the room open all the time and is used sort

of like a chapel? Or is it locked except when used by families experiencing a

loss.

Deb

---- kemper1974@... wrote:

> We don't have one, but I think it would be a wonderful idea. They do have

> those type of " family rooms " in the ERs here.

[Guest guest]

How do they use them in the ER? Is the room open all the time and is used sort

of like a chapel? Or is it locked except when used by families experiencing a

loss.

Deb

---- kemper1974@... wrote:

> We don't have one, but I think it would be a wonderful idea. They do have

> those type of " family rooms " in the ERs here.

[Guest guest]

We don't have a bereavement room but our L & D just added 2 new

birthing rooms. One of the rooms is really too small and akward to

perform births in and is not set up to our central monitoring

system. This room is tucked into the back closest to the staff only

exit doors and away from most of the noise. We have taken to using

this room for our known fetal demises and of late, TAs. Once we

took the warmer out of the room it has enough room that a number of

family members could fit comfortably in the room and we tend to be

more lenient on support partners and visiting.

The TA I did the other night, I had the patient, her boyfriend, both

sets of mothers and the patients father in the room because this is

what the patient wanted. After the birth, the family was able to

hold the child and properly grieve without people continuely walking

by or hearing other children being born. We let the family stay in

this room as long as they need to and follow their lead as much as

we can. Their priest came to the room (He was told it was a fetal

demise, not a TA) and blessed the child and led prayer in the room.

Because the room is closest to the staff exit, we were able to let

in and out the patient's family without disturbing other patients

and while giving the family some privacy. All in all, this room

seems to serve a good purpose as I guess a bereavement room.

If this is what you had in mind at all let me know and I can tell

you more about it.

Elissa

[Guest guest]

Yes it does sound like what we want.

Deb

---- Elissa wrote:

> We don't have a bereavement room but our L & D just added 2 new

> birthing rooms. One of the rooms is really too small and akward to

> perform births in and is not set up to our central monitoring

> system. This room is tucked into the back closest to the staff only

> exit doors and away from most of the noise. We have taken to using

> this room for our known fetal demises and of late, TAs. Once we

> took the warmer out of the room it has enough room that a number of

> family members could fit comfortably in the room and we tend to be

> more lenient on support partners and visiting.

>

> The TA I did the other night, I had the patient, her boyfriend, both

> sets of mothers and the patients father in the room because this is

> what the patient wanted. After the birth, the family was able to

> hold the child and properly grieve without people continuely walking

> by or hearing other children being born. We let the family stay in

> this room as long as they need to and follow their lead as much as

> we can. Their priest came to the room (He was told it was a fetal

> demise, not a TA) and blessed the child and led prayer in the room.

> Because the room is closest to the staff exit, we were able to let

> in and out the patient's family without disturbing other patients

> and while giving the family some privacy. All in all, this room

> seems to serve a good purpose as I guess a bereavement room.

>

> If this is what you had in mind at all let me know and I can tell

> you more about it.

>

> Elissa

>

>