Improve End-of-life care

Help Patients and their Loved Ones Cope with Loss

Studies show that families are more likely to consider legal alternatives when communication with a physician or nurse was not caring or compassionate following an unexpected or bad outcome. Yet, most healthcare professionals have never received formal education about how to deal with someone struggling with the death of a loved one. The Bereavement Library, from Vivid Learning and Gundersen Lutheran, teaches compassionate communication skills to help patients and their loved ones through difficult times of loss. The three courses in the library focus on communication, perinatal grief, and the overall framework of grief. Healthcare professionals will learn grief support and communication skills that will help to comfort patients’ families and decrease the likelihood of families considering legal action.

Impact:
Improve end-of-life care

• Build trust
• Increase family communication
• Decrease legal risk

Learn compassionate communication skills

• Increase sensitivity
• Focus on non-verbal cues

Build cultural sensitivity

• Identify cultural needs
• Respect cultural differences
• Learn culturally appropriate communication

Features:

• Interactive functionality to promote learning and retention
• Patient testimonials highlighting the importance of compassionate care
• Additional readings support areas of interest
  

This course is essential for:

• Promoting Professional Development
• Improving Communication Skills

This course supports:

• Nursing Orientation
• Perinatal Nursing Orientation
• Nursing Quality Improvement Initiatives
• Physician Orientation

Series Outline
Caring for the Family Experiencing Perinatal Grief

• Identify definitions and statistics associated with early pregnancy loss, stillbirth, and newborn death
• Define the unique aspects of early pregnancy loss, stillbirth, and newborn death
• Identify common misconceptions of perinatal loss.
• Establish a Standard of Care for perinatal loss
• Describe what bereaved parents find helpful in coping with perinatal loss
  

Communicating with the Bereaved

• Identify the key verbal and nonverbal components of sensitive communication
• Identify what to say and not say when conversing with the bereaved
• Describe three common ways of responding to the bereaved
• Define culturally sensitive communication

Theoretical Framework of Grief

• Define grief, mourning and bereavement
• Identify myths of grief
• Describe the phases of bereavement
• Identify the dimensions of grief
• Identify risk factors for complicated grief
• List three cardinal rules of grief support
• Develop self-awareness regarding values and beliefs about death

Continuing Education Credit
1.2 CE Hours per course
3.6 total CE Hours

Subject Matter Experts
Diane Midland, BSW, MS, is a Clinical Social Worker in the Intensive Care Unit at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center and former Bereavement Educator with Bereavement Services. For over 25 years, she has worked with families experiencing the death of a significant person and educated health care professionals on how to help.