Hospital Memorial Day team runners-up of prestigious national award
An NUH critical care bereavement support team have been announced as runners-up of a prestigious Patient Experience Network National Award (PENNA).
Our family liaison team was shortlisted in the Support for Caregivers, Friends, and Family category after launching a special Memorial Day in response to public feedback.
It’s the 12th year of the PEN National Awards, the only national patient experience awards to recognise best practice in patient experience across all facets of health and social care in the UK.
Families told our staff how important it was for them to be given the chance to remember those who died, while allowing them to talk to other bereaved families and the staff who had cared for their loved ones.
The Memorial Day is led by Jenny Bakewell and the multi-disciplinary family liaison team. It takes place in the Spring and covers all Critical Care deaths in the past year. It includes an afternoon tea and some non-religious words of comfort from the hospital Chaplain.
The families chat with each other and our staff, can paint a pot, and scatter rose petals and blow bubbles outside. They can also write messages of remembrance for their loved ones, which are hung on a wooden tree. After each event, the messages are taken back and stored in the hospital chaplaincy. “Those messages are never thrown away,” said Ruth Pettit, rehabilitation lead nurse in the team.
She added: “Families appreciate the chance to meet with and chat to other bereaved families, and to chat with our staff. They give us feedback about the care their loved one received at the time, which, in the main, is really positive.
“The Memorial Day is an extension of the follow-up care we give to our families. About six to eight weeks after a patient dies, we contact the next-of-kin and offer them the opportunity, that if they have any unanswered questions they can come back and have a chat with us – and we have a substantial number of families that do that.
“With the nature of critical care, the deaths are sudden, unexpected, and traumatic and families don’t often understand how or why their relative died.
“The days are also really beneficial for our staff. They get to meet the wider families, they find out a bit more about them and often the families bring photos of how the person was. For us to have that space and time and realise that although people’s loved ones have died, they have moved on and they are really thankful for the care that we gave them.
“The families’ feedback also informs future events - that’s really important to us.”
Jenny said: “I am absolutely delighted that the team has been named runners-up and extremely proud of everyone's contribution. The Critical Care bereavement team works incredibly hard to ensure that our families our supported at such a difficult time following the loss of a loved one in Critical Care. We provide support and reassurance to our families during and after their bereavement.”
Ruth, who represented the team at a ceremony at the University of Birmingham, said: “I’m really proud our team has been named runners-up against such strong competition — and the winners thoroughly deserved to win. The Memorial Days are a huge team effort but so rewarding as we know how much comfort they bring to our families.”