15th May 2024
A first-of-its-kind course on how to support staff following the sudden and unexpected death of a child has taken place at Craigavon Area Hospital.
The course was designed and facilitated by Dr Sarah Rafferty, a ST6 Paediatric trainee and current ADEPT Fellow within the Southern Health and Social Care Trust.
Dr Rafferty said that she wanted to create a simulation-based course that would allow doctors to experience the emotional impact of Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy (SUDI) and equip them with the knowledge and skills for what is required of them, with the overarching goal of delivering better care to a bereaved family.
“Although it is rare, when an infant or child dies unexpectedly, lots of professionals and agencies become involved to not only support the bereaved family but to find answers for them as to why this has happened.
“Managing this requires a unique set of skills and collaboration between multiple agencies, however we do not currently receive any formal training surrounding child death and staff may be dealing with this for the first time in their career.”
Dr Rafferty added that there is a protocol currently being developed to guide agencies involved in the best way of working together to find these answers and to also prevent future deaths by identifying modifiable risk factors.
“This course was designed with this protocol in mind and faculty included staff with expertise in this area from NIAS, the emergency department, paediatricians, senior police, coroner, clinical psychology and Child Death Programme Directors from the Public Health Agency, who are writing the protocol.”
The one-day course used sophisticated life-like mannequins in realistic patient environments within Craigavon’s new Simulation Suite and involved actors which made the day even more ‘real-life’ for the attendees and elevated the learning to a high level.
As part of the course, those in attendance also got the opportunity to learn from service user’s experience.
“A child’s sudden death represents a devastating loss for the parents, wider family and the child’s whole community and I was honoured to host a space for a family affected by SUDI to share their story as part of our learning.
“The course was a huge success and had a significant impact on all involved. It hosted a space for bigger conversations including multi-professional experience and expertise, collaborative working, the psychological impact on staff, child bereavement care in Northern Ireland and most importantly, striving to deliver the best care we possibly can to a family suffering from this terrible tragedy.
“The hope is that this course will become regular, accessible training for relevant staff with the possibility of expanding to the police force.”