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A Time to Remember:Reflecting on an annual memorial service held to specifically remember kidney patients who have died
S.Watson, W. Yeboah
Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
Background: Although treatable with transplantation and dialysis kidney failure remains a life limiting illness. Sadly each year approximately 100 patients known to our kidney unit die.
Individuals with kidney failure spend years managing their disease and may have a number of different therapies. Many patients spend a great deal of time with their kidney teams and even a person with a healthy transplant will still attend the clinic periodically. For that reason, strong relationships and bonds develop between patients, their families and staff over the course of years. When a patient dies, as well as the loss felt by their loved ones it can be a great source of sadness to the clinical team who have been involved in their care. Alongside the grief of the bereaved relatives, there may be an additional sense of loss because the contact and support from the unit is withdrawn.
In order to demonstrate the importance of our patients’ lives and how they have touched ours, our respect for them and their loved ones and to assist with their grieving process; a memorial service is held each year in remembrance of those who have died. The renal supportive care clinical nurse specialists have taken it on as part of their role to organise this event.
Aim/Purpose: This year a survey was carried out following the service to determine whether it was meeting the needs of those who attended and canvass the opinion of staff present.
Methods: Relatives of patients who had died in the previous two years were invited to attend the service held in the hospital chapel. 130 invitations were sent out and all staff in the kidney department where invited. 52 bereaved loved ones and 32 unit staff attended the service led by the renal Chaplain. It was a multi-faith, traditional memorial format consisting of music, readings and time for quiet reflection and prayer. It included an act of remembrance; reading out the individual names of those who had died and the lighting of candles. There was participation from relatives, friends, multidisciplinary staff members and the local Kidney Patients Association. Following the service, we had time for discourse and refreshments.
A survey was handed out to all attendees at the end of the service 34 were returned from bereaved loved ones and 11 from staff.
Findings: From the surveys returned we found verbal and written feedback from bereaved relatives and staff was overwhelmingly positive. All the bereaved loved ones found the service very helpful or helpful as part of their bereavement journey while staff felt the service was moving and met their needs. 100% of bereaved relatives and staff felt the venue was suitable, despite the majority finding it upsetting to return to the hospital they reported feeling glad they came. 82% of bereaved relatives would like to attend the service again.
Conclusion: The memorial service was successful in its aim to bring comfort to those bereaved. It demonstrated that the intervention of holding a memorial service was a positive part of the bereavement care provided by the unit. In addition we acknowledge that though participating in this ceremony can be painful for us as staff and individuals that it is a tangible way of us demonstrating the value of our patients’ lives.