Guidelines: 4. Provide Emotional Support
- Parents value empathy and support from staff
- Talking to parents and providing emotional support is as important as many practical tasks
- Small actions and behaviours that demonstrate compassion and caring are highly valued
- Parents’ desire to talk about the loss may change over time, or on a day to day basis
- Be flexible in the approach to emotional needs
- Staff worry about ‘saying the wrong thing’ but most whole appreciate being given the opportunity to talk
The hardest part of our job is working off the family’s body language.
The biggest thing a nurse can do ...is to be there.
Learning to say sorry is important.