Question

A school bus has recently slid off of an icy bridge and is now in the icy waters below. Several children
were identified and brought to the local ER for medical treatment. A mother arrives at the ER seeking
her son. The nurse encounters the frantic mother and determines that the boy she is looking for was
pronounced dead at the scene.

1. What is the nurse’s best action?
2. What priority assessments should the nurse complete?
3. What nursing interventions are appropriate at this time?

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Answer 1

The nurse should Say to the mother as "The child has died," which most clearly conveys the situation

• Assess the phase of grieving being experienced by the mother  and significant others.
• Know the availability of support systems for the mother
• Communicate therapeutically with mother and family members and allow them to verbalize feelings.

Nurses assist the client with the grieving process and with coping with the suffering, grief, loss, death and bereavement. As with all other nurse-client relationships, the nurse initiates the relationship by establishing trust with the client and then encouraging the person to ventilate their feelings within the trusting, supportive and nonjudgmental environment. The nurse also assists the client in terms of their coping with grief and loss by encouraging the client to learn about and employ effective coping strategies, by encouraging the family members and significant others to care for and support the affected the client, and, when needed, the nurse makes referrals for the client so that available community resources are utilized. Some of these referrals may include psychological, social, religious and spiritual support, individual counseling, group and family therapy, and peer support groups in the community to promote adaptive grieving and to prevent complicated grieving.

Clients typically react in different ways to grief and loss. Nurses assess these reactions and they also educate and inform the client about these reactions and how they are the normal results of the grieving process when indeed they are. This acknowledgement and the support of the nurse can help the client to understand that they are not alone and that they are experiencing normal feelings, signs and symptoms of grief.

clients who are experiencing loss and bereavement can often be helped with resources such as individual therapy, group therapy and peer support groups in the community.