Karen our fabulous ED Manager at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital approached me and Debbie (EOLC Team) , Karen had sadly just done a bereavement visit with bereaved parents, she was supporting a family at the hardest of times and on her way back from the swan bereavement suite she saw staff in the corridor it was inbetween Christmas and New year & staff were wishing her a Merry Christmas and asking her how she was not realising she was with family and supporting them at this most difficult time.
We needed something to act as a sign that staff would recognise and not approach the staff member at this time, allowing ED staff to carry out the visit in a supportive and kind way as we have one chance to get it right.
So the bereavement swan lanyard was designed with the help and suport from Best Badges who also make our swan badges which are all funded by the swan fund from kind donations.
The lanyards are worn by staff in ED doing bereavement visits to alert other staff to what they are doing and the importance of not approaching them at this difficult time.
We have also expanded this work to our bereavement staff for when they are with family issuing the medical certificate of cause of death.
We will be doing some communication about this important work in our chatterbox SaTH information sharing newsletter and with the help of our EOLC Champions we will launch this month.
We hope it will make a real difference at the hardest of times because the little things are the big things.
Thank you Jules Lewis End of Life Care Facilitator at SaTH #onechance