For most people, dealing with a death is a major life event. For nurses, it’s part of the job to comfort a grieving family in one room and then care for a patient in the next, all while stifling their own emotions after a patient dies.
When Piedmont Newnan RN Joanna Berry called her first time of death on an infant in the hospital’s Emergency Department a year ago, it became too much to bear. She wanted to break down crying, get away from the ED or, better yet, go home and hug her own children, but she couldn’t. “Despite how emotionally distraught you might feel, you still have to make sure you are properly dealing with your next patient when you just had to code an eight-week-old,” she said.
“The next morning I thought, ‘What can I do to make this easier for the people I work with and what would make it easier for me in this situation?’ ” she said.
That’s when she thought of an Angel Program, offering immediate emotional support to staff members dealing with a patient’s death.
ED Senior Director Michael Zimmermann approved it and provided a budget to pay off-duty staff members who volunteer as Angels to come in to work for up to two hours to relieve a grieving caregiver.
“We don’t need a counseling session for four hours to debrief us. We need 15 minutes to break away, get something to drink, maybe eat something, call our babies and make sure they’re OK, and be relieved that it’s not us that’s the grieving parent,” said Berry.
The Angels bring in food, snacks, coffee, or whatever is needed. They also help staff the unit so the nurses who have just dealt with a trauma can clock out and decompress.
“If one of the Angels walks in to relieve you, you don’t need to tell them anything. They know what just happened to you. I’ll give you a hug. You don’t have to look at me because I know if you look at me, you’re going to cry. You don’t have to say a word. I’m going to give you a hug and tell you to leave,” Berry said. “We’re in your room, doing your job and you’re gone.”
