Background: Funeral professionals offer a unique opportunity to support, educate, and advocate for grieving families after the death of a child. From the initial point of contact to the burial, funeral professionals shape the final moments and memories of a family and a community. And yet, little is known about the needs of funeral professionals to provide high quality services when a child dies. Objectives: To conduct a needs assessment among funeral professionals in conducting funeral services for children. Methods: Active National Funeral Directors Association members were surveyed on their experience and needs in providing pediatric funeral services. The survey contained 41 questions about experience, skills, and knowledge in providing pediatric funerals. The survey included multiple choice, yes/no, and open-ended questions. Descriptive statistics were generated from the survey items and comments/open-ended questions were coded and assessed for themes. Results: More than 200 responses were received. The respondents conducted 43 pediatric funeral services in a 5-year period (approx. 8 services/year). The top 5 self-identified training needs included grieving parents, grieving siblings, memorials, comforting the community, and outreach. Themes from the open-ended questions were (a) maintaining professionalism, (b) managing emotions and experiences, (c) assessing family dynamics, (d) managing professional skills, and (e) building collaborative networks. Conclusions: Specific training needs were identified that will inform the development of targeted training for funeral professionals to improve their skills and knowledge of pediatric funeral services.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.