NICU Bereavement Care and Follow-up Support for Families and Staff

Levick, Judy; Fannon, Jane; Bodemann, Janet; Munch, Shari

doi:10.1097/anc.0000000000000435

Cited by 33 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Of these, four represented quantitative studies [40][41][42][43], six represented qualitative studies [44][45][46][47][48][49], and two represented studies which included both quantitative and qualitative outcomes [50,51]. Nine articles were descriptive in nature [52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]. These articles contained well-defined bereavement interventions, yet the interventions were not tested empirically and, therefore, the outcomes could not be provided.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Facilitating parents in their parental role is a component HCPs provide before and after death. The main strategy in these interventions is to enable parents to nurture their child and to acknowledge their child's uniqueness [54]. Parents are facilitated to experience the bond with the child, create memories, have a blessing ceremony, and say their farewells [59,60].…”

Section: The Acknowledgement Of Parenthood and The Child's Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

“…It allows parents to begin to contemplate the idea that their child is dying, while ensuring that their child is as comfortable as possible [60]. These practices support anticipatory grief, since they foster emotional preparedness, allow parents to adjust slowly to the fact that their child is dying, and help to create lasting memories for parents to cherish after death [54]. A certificate of life empowers parents to recognise the identity of their child.…”

Section: The Acknowledgement Of Parenthood and The Child's Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Especially in neonatology, where parents will not have been outside the hospital with their child, keepsakes provide parents with a way to cherish a part of their child, when the child is no longer present. Establishing keepsakes can help parents feel attached and close to their child and to provide comfort [54]. Over time, the keepsakes can help the parents in remembering the child, and help parents with processing, conceptually, the loss, while they revise the autobiographical memories and the memories of the child in order to adjust to the new reality.…”

Section: Establishing Keepsakesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is important as parents often describe being in a haze during the end-of-life period of their child [44,46]. Furthermore, autopsy results are often shared in order to clarify the physical illness [53,54]. HCPs also have the opportunity to reassure parents that there is nothing that they could have done differently [58].…”

Section: Follow-up Contactmentioning

confidence: 99%

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When a child dies: a systematic review of well-defined parent-focused bereavement interventions and their alignment with grief- and loss theories

et al. 2020

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Background: The availability of interventions for bereaved parents have increased. However, most are practice based. To enhance the implementation of bereavement care for parents, an overview of interventions which are replicable and evidence-based are needed. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of well-defined bereavement interventions, focused on the parents, and delivered by regular health care professionals. Also, we explore the alignment between the interventions identified and the concepts contained in theories on grief in order to determine their theoretical evidence base. Method: A systematic review was conducted using the methods PALETTE and PRISMA. The search was conducted in MEDLINE, Embase, and CINAHL. We included articles containing well-defined, replicable, paediatric bereavement interventions, focused on the parent, and performed by regular health care professionals. We excluded interventions on pathological grief, or interventions performed by healthcare professionals specialised in bereavement care. Quality appraisal was evaluated using the risk of bias, adapted risk of bias, or COREQ. In order to facilitate the evaluation of any theoretical foundation, a synthesis of ten theories about grief and loss was developed showing five key concepts: anticipatory grief, working models or plans, appraisal processes, coping, and continuing bonds. Results: Twenty-one articles were included, describing fifteen interventions. Five overarching components of intervention were identified covering the content of all interventions. These were: the acknowledgement of parenthood and the child's life; establishing keepsakes; follow-up contact; education and information, and; remembrance activities. The studies reported mainly on how to conduct, and experiences with, the interventions, but not on their effectiveness. Since most interventions lacked empirical evidence, they were evaluated against the key theoretical concepts which showed that all the components of intervention had a theoretical base.

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