Improving knowledge, confidence, and skills in perinatal bereavement care through simulation in baccalaureate nursing students

Improving knowledge, confidence, and skills in perinatal bereavement care through simulation in baccalaureate nursing students
State Nurses Associations - Kansas State Nurses Association; by Shelby True, MSN, RN; Libby Rosen, PhD, RN, IBCLC; Ashley Seematter MSN, RN; Jeri Harvey & Karly Lauer, MSN, RN; 2/20/25
... Perinatal loss can have a profound impact on parents and their loved ones, leading to emotional, psychological, physical, and spiritual trauma that deeply affects the lives of those involved. The nursing care each parent receives at the time of the loss may be remembered for years to come and is crucial to determining the nature of the grieving process (Sorce & Chamberlain, 2019). ... To improve the knowledge, confidence, and skill level of nurses providing perinatal bereavement care, a role-play perinatal bereavement simulation was developed and implemented in two Midwestern universities’ baccalaureate nursing programs in the maternal/newborn courses. 
Editor's note: While serving our hospice's Pediatrics Team for four years, the deep grief of parents, grandparents, siblings carved a cavern within. I remember a young mom--days after her baby's birth and hours after his death--struggling to leave her infant's body with the hospital's nurse. Gently, she and I held her baby together. Over the course of about 15 minutes, the mother gradually shifted the weight of holding her baby over to me, before the hardest task of her life--leaving the hospital without her child. (It was Christmas week. I bawled when I got home.) Visiting them at the funeral home and later in her home, I experienced horrible, disenfranchised comments from others (especially a local preacher). Leaders: tune into your pediatric hospice and palliative team members. What specialized support and education do they need? And, we never know what personal stories of perinatal loss those around us continue to carry.