Coping with future COVID-19 deaths
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Coping with future COVID-19 deaths

Julie Pearce Marie Curie chief nurse and executive director of quality and caring services

How the plans we make now can help reduce strain on healthcare staff, and on grieving families

The findings of our annual Nursing Standard–Marie Curie survey show that COVID-19 has brought huge challenges for nursing staff delivering end of life care.

Nursing Standard. 35, 11, 55-55. doi: 10.7748/ns.35.11.55.s20

Published: 04 November 2020

Wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), although essential, is draining and has created a physical barrier to communication. And we have been left emotionally exhausted, absorbing the fears and anxieties of our patients and their families while working to treat, to reassure and to show kindness and compassion.

Under normal circumstances, healthcare professionals are equipped to respond to people’s feelings of grief and loss. But the volume of deaths during the pandemic has meant we have not had enough time to process the enormity of recent months, jeopardising our own health and well-being.

Supporting the grieving process

This pandemic will leave a long-lasting legacy for the whole population, not least the families who were unable to be with loved ones in their final moments.

For many, the grief began before their loved one died, as they were unable to see them in person, due to visiting restrictions in homes and hospitals.

In response to increasing numbers of people seeking and needing help with their grief as a result of the pandemic, Marie Curie launched a bereavement support line available to the public and health and social care professionals.

As an end of life care charity, Marie Curie has been having compassionate conversations with patients and their families about end of life care and what matters to them.

More people wanted to be cared for and to die at home, with their families, pets and familial things around them. They didn’t want to be disconnected by the restrictions on visiting.

Nursing teams worked together to try to make this happen: district nursing teams working with nursing teams from charities and the voluntary sector, as well as staff from care agencies, to organise rapid discharge from hospital or allow people to remain at home.

‘We need to consider the health and well-being of nursing staff. Nurses and care workers are emotionally and physically tired, and have barely had a chance to recover from the first wave’

We collaborated, offering mutual support face to face and virtually, and being energised by making things happen through cross-organisational working.

We must take the opportunity to build on this joint working. Pooling resources and avoiding duplication will mean that we can care for many more people at home – this should be one positive outcome of the pandemic.

We also need to be kind to ourselves and set aside time to reflect and re-energise, even amid the busyness of family and work life. We owe it to ourselves, our families and the people we care for.

ns_v35_n11_20_0002.jpg

Picture credit: Barney Newman

Factors to consider for the next phase

As we move into the next phase of the pandemic, there are things we should be mindful of.

For patients and their families, visiting is important. When planning how restrictions will work, we need to balance the risks of visiting with the benefits to patients and families.

And crucially, we need to consider the health and well-being of nursing staff. Nurses and care staff are emotionally and physically tired, and have barely had a chance to recover from the first wave.

More staff may be off sick this time because of winter viruses such as flu and colds, putting more strain on the staff available to work.

Compassion fatigue could also be a factor, and that’s why good support for staff is essential. We need to continue to work together, laugh together, and encourage and support each other through the next few months.

The patients with COVID-19 I won’t forget rcni.com/covid-next-phase

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