"Grief is very powerful" - Sister's message for Grief Awareness Week
This week (2 December-8 December) is Grief Awareness Week.
Clare Hicklin is a Sister on Ward 2 at Florence Nightingale Community Hospital, which offers palliative care to patients.
Clare has shared her thoughts on what grief means to her and her team:
“As a team on Ward 2 at Florence Nightingale Community Hospital, we feel grief doesn't start at the end of the journey when the patient dies. Grief is very individual and begins at different times for people. It can be at the day of diagnosis, during the loss of your independence, or that feeling of becoming a burden on others.
“As a team we help to support our patients and relatives during this grief. We sit and listen day or night and we acknowledge that this process starts way before the family member dies. We recognise that there isn't a right or wrong way of dealing with this and we support each day, however it may come. We take time and pause when they need us too.
“We are continuing to develop our bereavement support with relatives of our patients and we provide information on the ward about the Good Grief Trust and also signpost the services in the local area such as Treetops.”
Clare said a key part of her role is supporting her colleagues.
She said: “It is important we look our for each other too and we support each other to be able to do our role effectively through Tea at Two in which we stop for a moment to check in with ourselves and our colleagues.
“Grief is very powerful.”
Every year, the team on Ward 2 light up the garden outside the ward orange to acknowledge Grief Awareness Week.
The team will be doing this again this year at 6pm on Thursday, 8 December.