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Dealing with Patient Deaths

October 17, 2017 By Kati Kleber, MSN RN Leave a Comment

Dealing with Patient Deaths

This podcast is available on iTunes, Stitcher, PlayerFM, iHeartRadio, Libsyn, Spotify, Amazon Music, or your favorite podcast app.

Articles contain affiliate links. For more information on affiliate links, click here

Who You’ll Hear

Kati Kleber, MSN RN – Nurse educator, former cardiac med-surg/stepdown and neurocritical care nurse, author, and speaker.

Elizabeth Mills, BSN RN CCRN – highly experienced neurocritical care nurse, current Stroke Navigator for a Primary Stroke Center.

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What You’ll Learn

  • Communication
  • Practical Advice
  • Palliative Care and Hospice

Communication

  • Educate
    • It’s really upsetting for loved ones, prepare them for what they’ll see
      • Suctioning, snoring, pain meds, gurgling
  • Communicate the medications you’re giving, what you’re doing before you do it
    • Talk to the patient as if they can hear, even if you don’t think they can
  • Be careful about your wording and tone
    • Don’t come into the room all peppy and happy
    • Words matter
      • Do not say, “withdraw of care” – rather, “withdraw of life support”
      • People may think that if the focus shifts from survival that they will receive less time and care from the staff
  • Don’t tell the family when/time frame, because you honestly don’t know and don’t want to fail to meet expectations

Practical things for you to do and know

  • Know your institution’s policies and procedures
  • Know when to notify the organ procurement team
  • Know the specific needed paperwork (release of body)
  • Remove restraints if appropriate
  • Know post-mortem care procedures
  • Know if the patient will be sent to the medical examiner because that will impact your post mortem care

Practical ways to support the family

  • Ask about religious or spiritual preferences, as well as culture to ensure they are prioritized and observed appropriately
  • Allow silence
  • Don’t rush out of the room
  • Make sure there are lots of tissues
  • Utilize other support systems – chaplains (who are usually trained to be with people in crisis, whose focus is to provide spiritual support and not convert people to specific religions), child life specialists, family supports
  • Transfer to a larger room, if possible

Palliative care and hospice

  • “Palliative care is whole-person care that relieves symptoms of a disease or disorder, whether or not it can be cured. Hospice is a specific type of palliative care for people who likely have 6 months or less to live. In other words, hospice care is always palliative, but not all palliative care is hospice care.” (Source)
  • Can help put the big picture together

More resources

  • When Your Patient Starts Crying – FreshRN Blog
  • I Wish I Could Cry With You, But I Can’t – FreshRN Blog

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Filed Under: Podcasts Tagged With: dealing with patient deaths, FreshRN Podcast, nurse, nurses

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Kati Kleber, MSN RN

The founder and educator behind FreshRN® is a nurse educator, author, national speaker, host of the FreshRN Podcast, and owner of FreshRN® – an online platform created to educate, encourage, and motivate newly licensed nurses in innovative ways. 

Read more about Kati's background and expertise on the FreshRN About page

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