Created by:
Erin Andrus
BYU-Idaho
Nursing 400
This site is designed to assist and teach nurses in how to help patients deal with their loss, as well as help them though the loss as well. As nurses we often feel for our patients, and when this type of loss happens it can weigh heavily on the mind of the nurse caring for the family. Make sure you are allowed time to talk about the experience through a debriefing or even just a talk with a co-worker about your feelings. Unresolved grief can destroy anyone. Nurses are notorious for caring for everyone else and not themselves. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF!
I have been present for several pregnancy losses as a labor and delivery nurse. It never gets easier, but your coping skill can guide you through the process. My favorite part of helping the family is taking pictures of the baby, and doing foot and hand prints for them. It has become my way of saying goodbye to the little one. For me, there is something about being able to create something that the family can hold and cherish that is comforting to me. I have taken pictures of and printed babies that ranged from a 22 week baby that died after an abruption, up to a 40 week stillborn that died a couple days before. Each time I take comfort in knowing that the child was perfect, and through the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ that baby will live again and be perfect. Find comfort in your own beliefs during this time. Seek out the Lord in prayer, and know that he loves you. That thought gives me comfort, and keeps me going from day to day, shift to shift, patient to patient.
I have been present for several pregnancy losses as a labor and delivery nurse. It never gets easier, but your coping skill can guide you through the process. My favorite part of helping the family is taking pictures of the baby, and doing foot and hand prints for them. It has become my way of saying goodbye to the little one. For me, there is something about being able to create something that the family can hold and cherish that is comforting to me. I have taken pictures of and printed babies that ranged from a 22 week baby that died after an abruption, up to a 40 week stillborn that died a couple days before. Each time I take comfort in knowing that the child was perfect, and through the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ that baby will live again and be perfect. Find comfort in your own beliefs during this time. Seek out the Lord in prayer, and know that he loves you. That thought gives me comfort, and keeps me going from day to day, shift to shift, patient to patient.