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CS81
Mindfulness, Meditation, And Coping With Death In The PICU: A One-Day Retreat For Professional Staff
By: C. Klatzker & T. Loera; Childrens Hospital; Los Angeles, CA
For further information, please contact: kate@klatzker.com
PURPOSE: Seeking a creative solution to the “compassion fatigue” of caregivers of critically and terminally ill children and their families, our unit’s Family Centered Care Committee created a daylong retreat for PICU nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists, social workers, unit assistants and chaplains caring for severely ill and dying children.
DESCRIPTION: Drawing on a variety of respected contemporary sources, we developed a program of contemplative mindfulness for PICU use in a one-day format. The retreat agenda includes experiential exercises, introduction to meditation techniques and relaxation, group support, lunch, and self-care activities engaging participants in a process of transforming their experience of death. To determine the feasibility, we interviewed a medical retreat coordinator in Los Angeles and weighed our needs with their experience. Our search for a facilitator found Trudy Goodman, a nationally recognized meditation teacher. Retreat facilities off-campus were found. Community donations were collected to support this project. CEUs and education time were arranged to allow caregivers to attend.
EVALUATION AND OUTCOMES: There have been six retreats since October 2004 for CHLA caregivers. To date over 150 health caregivers have participated. The retreat is now offered throughout the hospital. Feedback is anecdotal. Questionnaires collected before and after the first three retreats yielded evidence of subjective shifts in awareness, or mindfulness, which cannot be quantified. Greater cohesion on the job among retreat participants has been observed and reported, plus an openness to expanded debriefings following deaths on the unit. Staff demand for more retreats suggests that this retreat format is useful in the ICU setting and may benefit caregivers who find that the barrage of pediatric deaths takes an emotional, physical and spiritual toll.
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