By Trudy Simpson, Staff ReporterTHERE IS reportedly no written protocol on how health care workers should tell relatives about the death of their loved ones in hospital.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the May Pen Hospital, Canute Thompson, has endorsed concerns raised by colleagues that no policy is in place.
This was brought painfully home on January 18 when a distraught father almost strangled a nurse on duty at the May Pen hospital in Clarendon after accusing her of being responsible for the death of his child.
"This experience has pointed to the need to look at just how we communicate at such time. From a strict business perspective, one would argue that a hospital is in the business of fighting illness with one of the frequent occurrences being death so there is a sense in which there is a clear mandate and requirement that we develop the requisite skills for managing emotions at death and to the extent that no protocols exist, it is something that I will be seeking to address for this hospital," he said.
NO WRITTEN DOCUMENT
Regional Director of the Western Regional Health Authority, Dr. Sheila Campbell-Forrester, says she does not remember ever seeing a written document covering this issue, especially in the cases where death was unexpected.
She told The Gleaner that the practices which determined how the bad news is broken to loved ones has been handed down, like a treasured tradition, a timeless tale or precious heirloom.
But despite the lack of a formal document, there are steps hospitals take when advising persons that their loved ones have died.
"We have ways of informing them," said Errol Beckford, CEO at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), the island's largest referral hospital. "People will react differently because of their charged emotions. You can't have one situation for all cases. We go through certain procedures. We have chaplaincy services (and) experienced staff (who) know how to deal with these matters," he continued.
Mr. Thompson explained that it was the doctor or the nurse who normally communicates with the family about the death of a loved one.
"There certainly is an opportunity for patients to have dialogue with the doctor. Throughout the period of the illness there is normally an opportunity for the patients' relatives to have dialogue with the doctor. If there are issues that the nurse is either unable to address or deemed more appropriate for the doctor to address there are opportunities for dialogue but when death does occur, there will be questions and there will be opportunities to have them addressed," said Mr. Thompson.
Sheryl Cameron, CEO at the Mandeville Regional Hospital in Manchester, said that it was impossible to know when someone is going to snap but nurses and doctors often sit with distraught relatives and explain about the death.
"When you have a loss of a family member, if other family members are not there (at the hospital), they are actually called on the telephone and told that they need to come in to see Dr so and so. They are not told on the phone that their loved ones have passed. You don't tell anybody that over the telephone. And when they do come, the doctor, and it's usually a senior doctor, will carry them aside and tell them what has happened and that their loved ones have died. They are usually there to answer questions and comfort them," she said, adding that the hospital also has the wherewithal to sedate patients although that has never happened.
