Bereavement follow-up: an opportunity to extend nursing care

Families who lose a child to cancer endure pain of tremendous proportions and those who face the grieving process without support are likely to feel devastated and overwhelmed. Nurses who care for these children and families have a unique opportunity (perhaps an obligation) to continue their care of families in the form of bereavement follow-up. Bereavement follow-up from nurses provides families with empathy, validation for their feelings, respect for their child's memory, and information about further support. Nurses can be uncomfortable about extending care to bereaved families for fear of saying the wrong thing, becoming emotional, making the parent's pain somehow worse, or because of unresolved grief of their own. Forming a bereavement committee and obtaining information about the grief process are two ways to work through those fears. Our informal evaluation of one bereavement program revealed that families greatly appreciate the follow-up. Nurses participating in the program felt more assured and personally rewarded once they become more knowledgeable about bereavement and received words and letters of appreciation from families.