Abstract (300 words maximum)

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to understand the importance of comprehensive education and appropriate resources when providing care to bereaved patients. Within the department of women’s health, fetal demise and maternal/infant mortality are unforeseen circumstance that nurses and patients can experience. Families that experience such tragedies deserve proper care regarding their grief and confident staff to care for them. These patient situations can be some of the hardest cases that nurses care for in the settings of women’s services and nurses need support and proper access to resources to provide this care. If this situation is not addressed, patients may experience an impaired recovery process regarding their grief and dissatisfaction in their care. Nurses may also feel stressed, uneasy, underprepared, and inept in providing care to patients experiencing these circumstances. Current practice does include recourses for nurses to use like trainings and groups to provide care, however, after the COVID-19 pandemic facilities may have lost these recourses. There is research to support the positive effects of comprehensive bereavement services on nurses and patients. Methods used to conduct the implementation for a nurses committee would be to find nurses interested in bereavement resources by creating a committee of staff. The goal is to propose the committee to local hospitals in surrounding metro-Atlanta areas. After introduction and acceptance of a nursing committee, surveys would assess success of the program. Nurses would be surveyed on their experiences, confidence, and heightened satisfaction in care delivery before implementation, after training of the bereavement committee, and six months after the committee has been active in their faculty. Surveys would also be conducted with patients that received bereavement resources six months after care in the facility to see if they received comprehensive, empathetic, and informative care.

Keywords: bereavement committee, women’s services, fetal demise, mortality, nursing

Academic department under which the project should be listed

Wellstar School of Nursing

Primary Investigator (PI) Name

Christie Emerson

Additional Faculty

Nerma Redcross, Wellstar School of Nursing, nsm7611@kennesaw.edu,

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Implementation of a Nurse Led Bereavement Committee to Show the Effects on Increased Nursing Confidence in Providing Care and Increased Patient Satisfaction in a Women’s Services Department.

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to understand the importance of comprehensive education and appropriate resources when providing care to bereaved patients. Within the department of women’s health, fetal demise and maternal/infant mortality are unforeseen circumstance that nurses and patients can experience. Families that experience such tragedies deserve proper care regarding their grief and confident staff to care for them. These patient situations can be some of the hardest cases that nurses care for in the settings of women’s services and nurses need support and proper access to resources to provide this care. If this situation is not addressed, patients may experience an impaired recovery process regarding their grief and dissatisfaction in their care. Nurses may also feel stressed, uneasy, underprepared, and inept in providing care to patients experiencing these circumstances. Current practice does include recourses for nurses to use like trainings and groups to provide care, however, after the COVID-19 pandemic facilities may have lost these recourses. There is research to support the positive effects of comprehensive bereavement services on nurses and patients. Methods used to conduct the implementation for a nurses committee would be to find nurses interested in bereavement resources by creating a committee of staff. The goal is to propose the committee to local hospitals in surrounding metro-Atlanta areas. After introduction and acceptance of a nursing committee, surveys would assess success of the program. Nurses would be surveyed on their experiences, confidence, and heightened satisfaction in care delivery before implementation, after training of the bereavement committee, and six months after the committee has been active in their faculty. Surveys would also be conducted with patients that received bereavement resources six months after care in the facility to see if they received comprehensive, empathetic, and informative care.

Keywords: bereavement committee, women’s services, fetal demise, mortality, nursing