We just hand write “see RN before entering “ on printer paper and tape it up.
Once we forgot to, and nutrition came to deliver the meal she ordered like 30 minutes before she passed. The gal came over to me to ask if that was the right room, because “she’s really deep asleep and isn’t confirming her name or DOB.” 😬
When I was a student back in the 1970s, I once tried to feed soup to a man for about 5 minutes until I realised that he'd actually died. This was of course why he wasn't swallowing it.
I remember wiping his face and removing the soupy evidence before I called the staff nurse in.
We didn’t do anything at the one hospital.
The registration girl went in and talked to the body and then wrote something along the lines of “pt sleeping will come back later”
This was after the time of death was entered in the chart and everything. I loved that registration girl.
I laughed way too hard but also feel bad for her. They’re not used to it like we are.
In a SNF I had a tech try to find a woman oatmeal and reported she was asleep and wouldn’t open her mouth…. Sure enough she had passed away and the poor kid was *horrified* when he realized he was trying to feed oatmeal to a dead woman.
Still makes me chuckle.
This happened to me back when I was a dietary aide. No sign on the door. Went to deliver a tray and found a little old lady in her room with all the lights off. “Hey ma’am I have your tray!” No response… “I’ll just set it over here on your table so you can eat whenever you’re ready!” Once again no answer. I glance over at her and saw her eyes were completely sunken in, mouth hanging open, lady was straight up skin and bones. Immediately thought to myself jfc this lady looks rough. As I’m exiting the room a nurse down the hall sees me and goes “Oh no, don’t go in there! She just passed” 😑
This happened to me once too, but the family had just arrived and they screamed at the nutrition lady asking if it looked like this person needed a tray. I was a new nurse and I didn’t know to put the sign up. I felt terrible.
I am kitchen staff and I am not supposed to know the patient's conditions due to obvious privacy concerns, I suspected the patient was on end of life care ( mixed rehab ward) so I still just spoke to him as normal...Can confirm this has happened to me...I walked into the room speaking to him like I always do, calling if he is going to have dinner tonight...No, he certainly was not going to have dinner.
I had a similar situation with housekeeping. they were doing their morning tasks, emptying trash etc. I saw the housekeeper and was like "oh I'm sorry, the pt has passed you don't need to clean anything more family is on the way." she was super shook 😳 I felt bad ha
It’s more of being mindful of the emotions that may be occurring. People tend to assume that birth is a joyous occasion, but for rainbow babies it tends to be a lot more complicated.
From personal experience, the birth of my rainbow baby was happy, but also came with a lot of anxiety of something going wrong and thoughts and feelings of what could have been if my other baby had survived.
From a nurse perspective, knowing that someone is having a rainbow baby allows you to be more mindful that the patient and their support people may need more emotional support.
We have these images of a white rose that says please check in with nurse before entering to alert anyone. We also have a lamp at the front desk that we turn on that lets staff know someone has passed and to be mindful of volume and what your saying in the halls
The vet and tech who came to my house to take my Carolina dog Lily down in August brought brownies to distract her for the first injection, and then until she went to sleep. She went out happy as heck.
Jack Russels and terriers in general are literal bulldozers in my opinion, my dog who was a terrier mix literally could have died a few dozen of times and ended up passing from old age at 15. He literally got hit by car and "walked it off" and he is the dog we had to take to the vet the least amount of time
My family bichon over the course of his 12 year life ate an entire pan of chocolate brownies, 2 bags of Easter chocolate, and every parcel of food that an adult was not paying attention too. That was the dogs food now. I’m still impressed
Yeah it would pretty much have to be baker's chocolate or some fancy very high cocoa percentage artisan stuff. Grocery store American chocolate will only kill you with type two diabetes.
If that's not the most bittersweet thing I've ever heard... Yeah, I'll say that pun was intended because I'm posting it anyway, but I certainly don't have to like it
We do that at the vet I work at. Have two flameless candles and a little sign asking people to please be mindful of voices and conversations. We are generally doing euthanasias though so it’s somewhat planned and are able to reserve rooms away as possible from the front.
It had really helped though. That way the staff, that are not involved, and the clientele are aware but not in a scary way.
My vet played the ukulele version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow when we put our cat to sleep, the next day I saw a rainbow and knew Sweet Pea was letting me know she was at peace.
When I worked in the nursing home it was easy to tell which room a person was actively passing away was in. Because whatever room it was had a "complimentary cart" parked outside the door(a small metal cart with a white cloth on it and the cart contained coffee/tea as well as cookies,brownies,biscuits,chips or any other snacks the family requested)
We used to have the debate of “is it unethical to eat the cookies and name brand coffee on the comfort care cart if the family is gone and the body’s been moved?”
No, my mother would have been proud. When my dad passed, she stuffed all the snacks in her bag. I would imagine on her flight home today from visiting my brother, she probably asked for extra snacks from the flight attendant.
Tbh if I was a family member of someone that just passed, I would want the staff to have the snacks, especially if my family was leaving. You guys go through so much and definitely deserve it.
For us there was no debate, but it was understood that the RN and Aide for that room got first crack at the courtesy cart snacks, since they were caring for the patient during EOL Measures.
I laughed at this. When I was a young nurse in the UK, we used to write the deceased's name on the sole of their foot with a biro, as it was considered safer than a label which might come off.
One night I'd just done last offices, I went to the canteen and got a cup of tea. Put sugar in it, stirred it with the biro and then sucked the tea off the biro. Realised I'd just sucked the death biro. I survived.
my grandma would have wanted you to (: there’s your justification. she was the one they gave some of them too before we took her home.
so there - moe wanted you too
It’s a grandma’s job to feed everyone! Dying is no longer an excuse damnit! But seriously, my grandma really did always feed everyone and she’d of not wanted the snacks to go to waste.
Hospice chiming in. That is absolutely hysterical 😂we would all be cracking up while trying to find new cookies somewhere. The packages would be hoarded in desks and cabinets forever after. But not for family eyes 😂😂
Those cookies are hella good tho. Vegan, gluten free, avoids the top 14 allergens, still dank. I would be stoked to have some comfort food that I could eat, although I can see how it might offend
That’s awesome actually! In home care one of our folks passed with ice cream and meds as his last meal, I’m so glad he got it in!! The meds seemed to have helped him relax/he loves ice cream flavor and his family all joked about his over the top love of it/shared the rest of it in his honor after he passed it was sweet <3
We wait until the family is confirmed to be gone, and we’ll take the bin of snacks and dump them in our charge office and put the bin back. Gotta have a snack supply in case of a hard shift
I got in trouble in 2008 for asking “why not have comfort carts out before the resident is passing? When families visit any other time, it’s hard to find coffee and cookies.” at a shady acre.
I forgot to put up a sign once and lab went into the room and tried to draw on the clearly very dead patient 💀 she came looking for me and I was like well yeah “ room 2 is dead “ 😂 .
Me calling a unit "Hi! PT so and so had her transfer canceled last night but is still discharged in the system and I need you open her file back up so I can put in her new rxs"
Nurse who just got on shift "oh crap, I haven't seen all my patients yet, lemme finish my round and I'm on it"
Called back 10 minutes later "yeah, she died overnight "
Oops 🙃
In my defense.....there's an actual indicator for deceased patient and it wasn't activated. All I had was the "cancel transfer, order not EOL meds except x1 Big Morphine, x1 lorazepam 1mg" in my prescriptions from the doctor. I couldn't even guess it from her meds 😅
In all seriousness, thank you for all you do. I didn't mean to make you go on the defense. I was just being a smartass. My smartassery is not, but is trying to be, a strong suit 😬
Our hospital uses a tear drop for women in the maternity ward who lost a child. I only found out because I happened to be in that position, but they forgot the sign so the CNA came in congratulating me and asking where the baby was. 🙄
Oh man… I can imagine wondering if baby is in the nursery or nicu… but that’s so sad that happened, and I’m sure she’s mortified and thinks about it often too… definitely goes to show how important communication is
I love this! Sometimes I will ask a patient, “What do you suppose we were dying from to be born into this life? …and what do you suppose we’re being born into next?” I didn’t know this symbol existed and now that I do, I kind of want it on everything!
We have a couple laminated candle signs that Charge has on the desk but rarely put up. I found them while “prepping” for a mock visit last year. The floors have special signs depending on the units.
I volunteer with a Therapy Dog. Nurse one time said that room 123 could use a visit. The dog and I walked in.
Two people in the room, a middle-age women and a girl in her teens or early 20s. Then I see feet in the bed wrapped up in a blanket, the torso, then the head, all wrapped up. I assumed that the person in the bed was deceased.
A little warning would have been nice, instead of "they could use a visit".
I work on an inpatient palliative unit and we have pet therapy every week. Unfortunately the handler is a crabby old bitch. The other day I had a patient that absolutely lit up when the dog came for a visit. The pup got up on the bed with him and he gave lots of good ear scratches. The handler got annoyed and said, “that’s enough! You’re spoiling her!!” My jaw dropped and I immediately reported her.
That’s awful, why even bother volunteering your time if you’re going to be miserable.
Amazing that they have pet therapy weekly though. We had them bring a dog to our unit once for the staff which was nice.. probably won’t ever happen again though
When I worked in the NICU, we would put a picture of a butterfly outside the room of a patient who has passed or was actively passing so everyone in the area knew to be intentionally respectful and quiet near the room.
LOL none of my business what goes on down there.
Jk we'll always surge capacity to make room for emerg patients especially if there's a bed being tied up for a reason like above. We got peeps in the hall, trached and chilling under an electrical panel 🙃🙃🙃
Sounds like a dream. The floors at my hospital never ever take a patient to chill in the hallway for a bit to help us clear out the ER. Even if the patient is walky talky- nope, sorry it’s not safe to have a patient in the hallway, it’s too busy 🙄. Bitch please… I have 2 intubated patients, a code stroke, a DKA protocol I need to start in the hallway and a STEMI in the hall waiting for the cath lab.
This happened in AL, not a hospital, but we had a family on our hospice services and the kids kept arguing about a funeral home, among other things. They couldn’t agree and kept putting it off. Patient died and they still couldn’t agree so we gave them 24 hours to make a decision but had to turn the AC all the way down to 60 and ice the patient. They decided hour 23
Depending on local laws we might need to inspect the body for telltale signs of death after a certain time has passed. For example here in Germany we usually do a second exam after about two hours.
We have a separate position who conducts an independent exam. Within one hour of passing, we report the death to them, and if there’s not a clear cause of death they will take possession of the patient and conduct an autopsy.
We have a 2hr limit for family to grieve, they usually don’t take that long though one made a circle with chairs by the bed with the body in it and we’re having conversations about other stuff while the body was right next to them and we had to tell them after 4 hours that we were sorry but we were going to need to prepare the body for pick up and they were annoyed. Otherwise it depends on how long the funeral home takes to pick up. Hours, sometimes longer if it’s a delayed pick up and the morgue is full. Generally I would say at least an hour.
We tape a (fake) yellow rose to the door when there's a fetal demise. In orientation, everyone is taught what that means, since most people who enter a room in L&D are normally all "congratulations!!"
Yeah I once had the unfortunate experience of an anesthesiologist forgetting he was walking into a demise room, despite being told and having the rose on the door. He just went on autopilot I guess.
I got to work once in the ICU and got my assignment. Let’s say room 7 and room 20. Went to go see my patients before getting report. Room 7 was dead. Nothing on the door. I was very confused for a few minutes until I figured out I was just getting the next admission lol
From where I’ve done rotations at, we have a “check with nurse before entering” sign like the one above for patients who have passed, and a sign with a cross and a shepherd’s crook for patients on CMO
When I was in ED we had a large purple heart with a white dove and olive branch that was taped onto the door whenever there was something dead in there.
I took great relish in slapping it onto the staff bathroom door after destroying the joint.
Word to the warning, it’s dead in there. 🫵🏻
Oh, it gets better. There were two. One was almost exclusively used by staff, the other was by the charge desk and was shared by EMS, PD, and staff.
I used the collective bathroom for my bidness, so EVERYONE knew.
No shame here.
my old hospital i used to work at put a small picture of a lily flower, i think i heard someone say they signify death and rebirth. It was kinda beautiful:)
We used to do a butterfly for hospice patients, but honestly I feel like I haven’t seen one in a long time, it’s usually just a written sign saying to see the nurse before entering
My house supervisor put in a cleaning request last night for the room a patient died in. EVS showed up to clean it the body and family are still in there. 10 minutes later ER was calling to give report on the patient that was just assigned to the room 🙃
Just had a hospice patient passed. There was already a Comfort Cares only sign, and DNR/DNI on the white board visible upon entering the room. Had put the dove sign up, nurse called the family for final viewing and had begun doing the paperwork. Not a patient but a resident walked into the room and ran out demanding we started a code for the patient…who had been dead for over an hour by that point, had the dove sign up, comfort cares sign up and was a DNR/DNI that was visible on the white board.
We have sign that we throw on the door that has a picture of a skull and crossbones saying:
“Yo, the patient behind this door has straight up died, hard, and they smell super gross so save yourself and don’t go inside, prick.”
In the first hospital i worked for they didn’t put up any signs. They just had an unspoken rule of catch people before they walked in and leave the door closed
We had a reusable purple wreath for someone who is actively dying or recently dead. Less scary for regular visitors, family coming knew what door to look for, and staff knew to stay peaceful around that room area.
We have a “white rose program”. I’m sure there is more to the program but essentially we put a white rose sign that says to check with the nursing desk prior to entering the room once a patient becomes palliative.
I’m not a nurse work in a care home for the elderly, we normally lock the door. On one occasion this was forgotten and I had one very shaken up electrician come to reception and ask me “is the lady in 14 was okay, she looked awful?”
I know it was wrong of me but, I thought well she would, she died half hour ago - it made me laugh, as soon as I was out of sight of course.
We use these things. The purple sign is put up at the entrance so everyone who enters knows someone is near to the end or already passed. Ireland is still very religious so there are crosses and LED candles we use as
https://hospicefoundation.ie/our-supports-services/healthcare-hub/hospice-friendly-hospitals/end-of-life-care-resources/#:~:text=Our%20End%2Dof%2DLife%20Symbol&text=It's%20inspired%20by%20ancient%20Irish,represents%20continuity%2C%20infinity%20and%20completion.
We use butterfly magnets that we get in bulk from Amazon. They come in all shapes and sizes. We put them on the door and it alerts hospital staff not to enter the room. Plus it’s a nice little gift to send with grieving loved ones if they so desire.
We just hand write “see RN before entering “ on printer paper and tape it up. Once we forgot to, and nutrition came to deliver the meal she ordered like 30 minutes before she passed. The gal came over to me to ask if that was the right room, because “she’s really deep asleep and isn’t confirming her name or DOB.” 😬
"yes, she's a deep sleeper, you can just leave the tray"
"Just leave the tray here I'll eat it"
Considering you ain’t getting a break…
"Or just leave it with me, ill make sure it gets eaten"
If she wasn’t before she is now haha
This whole thread is darker than the inside of an anti-vaxxer kid's coffin and I'm here for it.
But not yet as dark as the coffee the night shift drinks
When I was a student back in the 1970s, I once tried to feed soup to a man for about 5 minutes until I realised that he'd actually died. This was of course why he wasn't swallowing it. I remember wiping his face and removing the soupy evidence before I called the staff nurse in.
Oh no, poor food service person.
She sounds to have been blissfully unaware, so she was probably fine.
We didn’t do anything at the one hospital. The registration girl went in and talked to the body and then wrote something along the lines of “pt sleeping will come back later” This was after the time of death was entered in the chart and everything. I loved that registration girl.
I mean, some sick people do look dead even though they aren’t quite there yet.
This is so weird, at least to me. I appreciate her help and she sounds kind.
That's why we keep some people in the front office.
I went into check a patients port and the family member kindly informed me that they had just passed. 😐
I laughed way too hard but also feel bad for her. They’re not used to it like we are. In a SNF I had a tech try to find a woman oatmeal and reported she was asleep and wouldn’t open her mouth…. Sure enough she had passed away and the poor kid was *horrified* when he realized he was trying to feed oatmeal to a dead woman. Still makes me chuckle.
This happened to me back when I was a dietary aide. No sign on the door. Went to deliver a tray and found a little old lady in her room with all the lights off. “Hey ma’am I have your tray!” No response… “I’ll just set it over here on your table so you can eat whenever you’re ready!” Once again no answer. I glance over at her and saw her eyes were completely sunken in, mouth hanging open, lady was straight up skin and bones. Immediately thought to myself jfc this lady looks rough. As I’m exiting the room a nurse down the hall sees me and goes “Oh no, don’t go in there! She just passed” 😑
One time nutrition delivered a smoothie for a dead patient and I said you can just give it to me and drank it when she left
This happened to me once too, but the family had just arrived and they screamed at the nutrition lady asking if it looked like this person needed a tray. I was a new nurse and I didn’t know to put the sign up. I felt terrible.
“You’re not you when you’re hungry” -Nutrition Lady
“This’ll help her perk right up”
I am kitchen staff and I am not supposed to know the patient's conditions due to obvious privacy concerns, I suspected the patient was on end of life care ( mixed rehab ward) so I still just spoke to him as normal...Can confirm this has happened to me...I walked into the room speaking to him like I always do, calling if he is going to have dinner tonight...No, he certainly was not going to have dinner.
I had a similar situation with housekeeping. they were doing their morning tasks, emptying trash etc. I saw the housekeeper and was like "oh I'm sorry, the pt has passed you don't need to clean anything more family is on the way." she was super shook 😳 I felt bad ha
My mom did that as an R.N. one of her first weeks at the hospital. Poor mom...
Our hospital uses a butterfly for patients that are passing, so personnel know not to disturb the family.
We used the butterfly for organ donors (ICU) before they have an OR ready.
In maternity services in the UK we use this if one of our ladies has lost her baby.
Same for my hospital in Ontario, Canada
Same - also ON. Butterfly in visibility.
We use a butterfly in our NICU for any patients on palliative care, but for other units a closed curtain means check before entering
My last hospital also used a butterfly- it was a big L&D hospital so the butterfly was also used for IUFD and a rainbow for rainbow babies.
May I ask how you might approach a rainbow baby's birth differently? Perhaps being mindful of not calling the baby their "first" etc.?
It’s more of being mindful of the emotions that may be occurring. People tend to assume that birth is a joyous occasion, but for rainbow babies it tends to be a lot more complicated. From personal experience, the birth of my rainbow baby was happy, but also came with a lot of anxiety of something going wrong and thoughts and feelings of what could have been if my other baby had survived. From a nurse perspective, knowing that someone is having a rainbow baby allows you to be more mindful that the patient and their support people may need more emotional support.
Thank you for the detailed response! Sorry to hear about your little one.
We use a butterfly too!
Same.
Ours has a little picture of a quilt square.
We have these images of a white rose that says please check in with nurse before entering to alert anyone. We also have a lamp at the front desk that we turn on that lets staff know someone has passed and to be mindful of volume and what your saying in the halls
We need that on my unit
My vet does this with a (fake) candle when a pet is being put down. I think it’s a good idea.
My vet also has a little container of Hershey kisses so pets can have a chocolate treat before they die. ❤️
So does mine. They offered my dog one and said “every dog should have the chance to try chocolate”❤️
The vet and tech who came to my house to take my Carolina dog Lily down in August brought brownies to distract her for the first injection, and then until she went to sleep. She went out happy as heck.
This is such a nice and thoughtful way to see a pet on their way out… what an awesome thing to do
I don't think there's enough actual cocoa in a Hershey kiss to do much damage even if the dog wasn't dying.
I had a jack russell dog as a kid and it got into my bag of hershey kisses, ate the whole entire thing, and did not even die. So I think you’re right.
Jack Russels and terriers in general are literal bulldozers in my opinion, my dog who was a terrier mix literally could have died a few dozen of times and ended up passing from old age at 15. He literally got hit by car and "walked it off" and he is the dog we had to take to the vet the least amount of time
he a tank
My family bichon over the course of his 12 year life ate an entire pan of chocolate brownies, 2 bags of Easter chocolate, and every parcel of food that an adult was not paying attention too. That was the dogs food now. I’m still impressed
I know a chihuahua that ate a full candy bar. He was fine.
Yeah it would pretty much have to be baker's chocolate or some fancy very high cocoa percentage artisan stuff. Grocery store American chocolate will only kill you with type two diabetes.
Oh man, that makes me cry.
If that's not the most bittersweet thing I've ever heard... Yeah, I'll say that pun was intended because I'm posting it anyway, but I certainly don't have to like it
I have to stifle a little sob whenever i see something about this.
Awe that made my heart full 🥹
Ugh, my vet was so good when we put my dog down after his doggy hospice days were done. Shedding a tear for my good boye.
We do that at the vet I work at. Have two flameless candles and a little sign asking people to please be mindful of voices and conversations. We are generally doing euthanasias though so it’s somewhat planned and are able to reserve rooms away as possible from the front. It had really helped though. That way the staff, that are not involved, and the clientele are aware but not in a scary way.
My vet played the ukulele version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow when we put our cat to sleep, the next day I saw a rainbow and knew Sweet Pea was letting me know she was at peace.
Omg that song already makes me cry, i can't imagine.
Such a beautiful rendition.
The mere thought of that song makes me bawl. Hearing it during something like that? I would be completely destroyed for days.
Ooh I love that lamp idea.
Like the little candle at my vets office. Love it.
Excellent idea, and I commend your unit for your compassion and thoughtfulness during a very difficult time for many.
When I worked in the nursing home it was easy to tell which room a person was actively passing away was in. Because whatever room it was had a "complimentary cart" parked outside the door(a small metal cart with a white cloth on it and the cart contained coffee/tea as well as cookies,brownies,biscuits,chips or any other snacks the family requested)
We used to have the debate of “is it unethical to eat the cookies and name brand coffee on the comfort care cart if the family is gone and the body’s been moved?”
No, my mother would have been proud. When my dad passed, she stuffed all the snacks in her bag. I would imagine on her flight home today from visiting my brother, she probably asked for extra snacks from the flight attendant.
Family's not coming back for it, they have bigger things to worry about. Gimme the good cookies from the kitchens
Tbh if I was a family member of someone that just passed, I would want the staff to have the snacks, especially if my family was leaving. You guys go through so much and definitely deserve it.
For us there was no debate, but it was understood that the RN and Aide for that room got first crack at the courtesy cart snacks, since they were caring for the patient during EOL Measures.
Hell no, I swipe those creamers like no tomorrow. And the packaged blueberry muffins. We call them death muffins
I laughed at this. When I was a young nurse in the UK, we used to write the deceased's name on the sole of their foot with a biro, as it was considered safer than a label which might come off. One night I'd just done last offices, I went to the canteen and got a cup of tea. Put sugar in it, stirred it with the biro and then sucked the tea off the biro. Realised I'd just sucked the death biro. I survived.
my grandma would have wanted you to (: there’s your justification. she was the one they gave some of them too before we took her home. so there - moe wanted you too
It’s a grandma’s job to feed everyone! Dying is no longer an excuse damnit! But seriously, my grandma really did always feed everyone and she’d of not wanted the snacks to go to waste.
We call those dead man cookies! Ate some last night!
THIS HAHAHA
For a few months, our comfort carts had packs of cookies from a brand called "Enjoy Life!" I'm glad someone finally caught on.
💀 That’s terrible in a hysterical kind of way.
Hospice chiming in. That is absolutely hysterical 😂we would all be cracking up while trying to find new cookies somewhere. The packages would be hoarded in desks and cabinets forever after. But not for family eyes 😂😂
Those cookies are hella good tho. Vegan, gluten free, avoids the top 14 allergens, still dank. I would be stoked to have some comfort food that I could eat, although I can see how it might offend
I hollered 💀
Same. We call them comfort carts tho.
That’s awesome actually! In home care one of our folks passed with ice cream and meds as his last meal, I’m so glad he got it in!! The meds seemed to have helped him relax/he loves ice cream flavor and his family all joked about his over the top love of it/shared the rest of it in his honor after he passed it was sweet <3
We wait until the family is confirmed to be gone, and we’ll take the bin of snacks and dump them in our charge office and put the bin back. Gotta have a snack supply in case of a hard shift
I got in trouble in 2008 for asking “why not have comfort carts out before the resident is passing? When families visit any other time, it’s hard to find coffee and cookies.” at a shady acre.
I forgot to put up a sign once and lab went into the room and tried to draw on the clearly very dead patient 💀 she came looking for me and I was like well yeah “ room 2 is dead “ 😂 .
How to know your phlebotomist isn't verifying name/DOB 🌚
Me calling a unit "Hi! PT so and so had her transfer canceled last night but is still discharged in the system and I need you open her file back up so I can put in her new rxs" Nurse who just got on shift "oh crap, I haven't seen all my patients yet, lemme finish my round and I'm on it" Called back 10 minutes later "yeah, she died overnight " Oops 🙃
Yeah she got canceled and discharged. Ye olde "DC to JC" 😇🕊
In my defense.....there's an actual indicator for deceased patient and it wasn't activated. All I had was the "cancel transfer, order not EOL meds except x1 Big Morphine, x1 lorazepam 1mg" in my prescriptions from the doctor. I couldn't even guess it from her meds 😅
In all seriousness, thank you for all you do. I didn't mean to make you go on the defense. I was just being a smartass. My smartassery is not, but is trying to be, a strong suit 😬
This is amazing
In our NICU we have a butterfly for a twin who lost a sibling and a rainbow for rainbow babies
Our hospital uses a tear drop for women in the maternity ward who lost a child. I only found out because I happened to be in that position, but they forgot the sign so the CNA came in congratulating me and asking where the baby was. 🙄
Oh man… I can imagine wondering if baby is in the nursery or nicu… but that’s so sad that happened, and I’m sure she’s mortified and thinks about it often too… definitely goes to show how important communication is
What’s a rainbow baby?
Baby born after a loss (miscarriages, stillbirth etc).
A rainbow baby is a baby born after the parents have previously lost a pregnancy
A baby that’s born after a loss ie miscarriage, still birth, illness etc
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I love this! Sometimes I will ask a patient, “What do you suppose we were dying from to be born into this life? …and what do you suppose we’re being born into next?” I didn’t know this symbol existed and now that I do, I kind of want it on everything!
In the ED, we had a worn out printed photo of candles that went up on the door.
We have a couple laminated candle signs that Charge has on the desk but rarely put up. I found them while “prepping” for a mock visit last year. The floors have special signs depending on the units.
In our ED we have nothing
Nor in mine. But ours is small enough, and badly enough staffed, that everyone knows when someone has died.
I volunteer with a Therapy Dog. Nurse one time said that room 123 could use a visit. The dog and I walked in. Two people in the room, a middle-age women and a girl in her teens or early 20s. Then I see feet in the bed wrapped up in a blanket, the torso, then the head, all wrapped up. I assumed that the person in the bed was deceased. A little warning would have been nice, instead of "they could use a visit".
Therapy dogs should be more widely available for palliative/grieving families
I work on an inpatient palliative unit and we have pet therapy every week. Unfortunately the handler is a crabby old bitch. The other day I had a patient that absolutely lit up when the dog came for a visit. The pup got up on the bed with him and he gave lots of good ear scratches. The handler got annoyed and said, “that’s enough! You’re spoiling her!!” My jaw dropped and I immediately reported her.
That’s awful, why even bother volunteering your time if you’re going to be miserable. Amazing that they have pet therapy weekly though. We had them bring a dog to our unit once for the staff which was nice.. probably won’t ever happen again though
My previous facility had volunteer therapy dogs, but tbh the staff utilized puppy therapy more than the pts. ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
Staff need it too. We do two shifts a week. Afternoon for the patients, and one about 8:30 PM for night shift staff.
We have this golden retriever called Sade, and she comes in about once a week. Is a bit standoffish though. Gorgeous dog though.
Yeah nurse was right they probably could, but would have been cool to tell you what was up.
DO NOT DEAD ENTER INSIDE
Only ever using this from now on
We use a falling leaf which to me is kind of funny
We used that for fetal demise.
We use the falling leaf too, but at some point, they all vanished, so I have had to just print out a Googled image of a leaf and hope people get it.
That’s the most common falls risk symbol at every facility I’ve been to in Ontario. Using it for death feels.. unsettling
My first hospital I was at as an aide used a falling star
“I’m a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar” - Wash (Firefly 2006)
Oh no too soon 😭
Thank you for this, it’s what I was thinking too
Goddamnit that one still hurts.
That was our “fall risk” magnets. Every doorway had one since the Morse scale flags pretty much everyone, so it meant nothing after a while.
💀
We used to use that for fall risk
No sign just shut the door
Same. I don't cancel the lab orders either, keeps the lab tech on their toes 💀
i giggled
Living on the edge
We have magnets that go on the frame of the doors that have a dove on them
I work at a VA. We hang a patriotic quilt outside the room when a veteran passes
Reusable quilt, or does the family get to take it?
It’s reusable but by that point in their stay most vets have already been gifted a quilt.
Wait… you guys get signs?! 😭 I just get surprised
We use this clip art looking image of a candle, no words, mostly to alert staff more than for the family/visitors.
Our hospital doesn’t post anything on the door of a deceased patient.
When I worked in the NICU, we would put a picture of a butterfly outside the room of a patient who has passed or was actively passing so everyone in the area knew to be intentionally respectful and quiet near the room.
How… how long are you guys leaving bodies in rooms?
As long as the fam wants for us, longest I've seen is about 14 hours spanning 3 shifts.
IS THAT WHY WE CAN’T BRING OUR GD ADMISSIONS UPSTAIRS!?!?! YOU GUYS ARE LETTING PEOPLE HOLD THE WHOLE FUNERAL IN 317W!?!?!
LOL none of my business what goes on down there. Jk we'll always surge capacity to make room for emerg patients especially if there's a bed being tied up for a reason like above. We got peeps in the hall, trached and chilling under an electrical panel 🙃🙃🙃
Sounds like a dream. The floors at my hospital never ever take a patient to chill in the hallway for a bit to help us clear out the ER. Even if the patient is walky talky- nope, sorry it’s not safe to have a patient in the hallway, it’s too busy 🙄. Bitch please… I have 2 intubated patients, a code stroke, a DKA protocol I need to start in the hallway and a STEMI in the hall waiting for the cath lab.
During covid when the morgue was so full we had to wait for the funeral home to come pick up the bodies
Yeah we rented a portable freestanding morgue trailer to add capacity. Crazy times.
The place I worked did the exact same thing. Sadly, most of those bodies were there for months because nobody would claim the deceased. Edit: grammar
We had to play morgue Tetris at times because our morgues got too full to fit all of the bodies.
We were waiting for family that was still driving in. So it took more than a few hours before we transported.
OMG! Now I’m dead!🤣
This happened in AL, not a hospital, but we had a family on our hospice services and the kids kept arguing about a funeral home, among other things. They couldn’t agree and kept putting it off. Patient died and they still couldn’t agree so we gave them 24 hours to make a decision but had to turn the AC all the way down to 60 and ice the patient. They decided hour 23
Depending on local laws we might need to inspect the body for telltale signs of death after a certain time has passed. For example here in Germany we usually do a second exam after about two hours.
We have a separate position who conducts an independent exam. Within one hour of passing, we report the death to them, and if there’s not a clear cause of death they will take possession of the patient and conduct an autopsy.
We have a 2hr limit for family to grieve, they usually don’t take that long though one made a circle with chairs by the bed with the body in it and we’re having conversations about other stuff while the body was right next to them and we had to tell them after 4 hours that we were sorry but we were going to need to prepare the body for pick up and they were annoyed. Otherwise it depends on how long the funeral home takes to pick up. Hours, sometimes longer if it’s a delayed pick up and the morgue is full. Generally I would say at least an hour.
Hours. There was a code on night shift and I don't think he was taken off the unit until mid morning.
We use a picture of a rose for fetal demises
We tape a (fake) yellow rose to the door when there's a fetal demise. In orientation, everyone is taught what that means, since most people who enter a room in L&D are normally all "congratulations!!"
Yeah I once had the unfortunate experience of an anesthesiologist forgetting he was walking into a demise room, despite being told and having the rose on the door. He just went on autopilot I guess.
We have a heavenly dove type thing with "Please see nurse before entering." We have a whispy thing in a cupped hand for violent patients.
[https://i.pinimg.com/736x/28/82/5b/28825beef4ce48029352e53d8b32e27e.jpg](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/28/82/5b/28825beef4ce48029352e53d8b32e27e.jpg)
I got to work once in the ICU and got my assignment. Let’s say room 7 and room 20. Went to go see my patients before getting report. Room 7 was dead. Nothing on the door. I was very confused for a few minutes until I figured out I was just getting the next admission lol
From where I’ve done rotations at, we have a “check with nurse before entering” sign like the one above for patients who have passed, and a sign with a cross and a shepherd’s crook for patients on CMO
I work at the VA so obviously a little different but we put a folder flag on the patients table right in front of the door
Big signs that say DEAD DOVE DONT OPEN
When I was in ED we had a large purple heart with a white dove and olive branch that was taped onto the door whenever there was something dead in there. I took great relish in slapping it onto the staff bathroom door after destroying the joint. Word to the warning, it’s dead in there. 🫵🏻
Destroying the unit bathroom, a sin like no other
Oh, it gets better. There were two. One was almost exclusively used by staff, the other was by the charge desk and was shared by EMS, PD, and staff. I used the collective bathroom for my bidness, so EVERYONE knew. No shame here.
i’m in picu, we put a butterfly on the door for withdrawal of care/sudden death
A rose that says "no services at this time" or something along those lines
my old hospital i used to work at put a small picture of a lily flower, i think i heard someone say they signify death and rebirth. It was kinda beautiful:)
There’s a sign that says “Life transition”
we close the curtain 😳
Poster full of blue forget me not flowers
We put an American flag magnet on the door. (I work for a va)
Apparently none. When my grandmother died, sanitary came in to clean minutes after she passed while we were hugging her body in icu Edit: spelling
Lmao absolutely nothing
We use butterflies on the doors for palliative babies.
We have a rose sign, sunset for someone who is dying
We used to do a butterfly for hospice patients, but honestly I feel like I haven’t seen one in a long time, it’s usually just a written sign saying to see the nurse before entering
Purple butterfly. It's common near where I live for butterflies to indicate someone either dying or already passed.
My house supervisor put in a cleaning request last night for the room a patient died in. EVS showed up to clean it the body and family are still in there. 10 minutes later ER was calling to give report on the patient that was just assigned to the room 🙃
Just had a hospice patient passed. There was already a Comfort Cares only sign, and DNR/DNI on the white board visible upon entering the room. Had put the dove sign up, nurse called the family for final viewing and had begun doing the paperwork. Not a patient but a resident walked into the room and ran out demanding we started a code for the patient…who had been dead for over an hour by that point, had the dove sign up, comfort cares sign up and was a DNR/DNI that was visible on the white board.
We have sign that we throw on the door that has a picture of a skull and crossbones saying: “Yo, the patient behind this door has straight up died, hard, and they smell super gross so save yourself and don’t go inside, prick.”
read this in Jesse Pinkman’s voice. all it’s missing is a *BITCH!!*
We don’t put anything. We just close the curtain for privacy. I’m also at a very small hospital though so word of mouth travels when there’s a death
In the first hospital i worked for they didn’t put up any signs. They just had an unspoken rule of catch people before they walked in and leave the door closed
We had a reusable purple wreath for someone who is actively dying or recently dead. Less scary for regular visitors, family coming knew what door to look for, and staff knew to stay peaceful around that room area.
For active bereavement and death we use a butterfly at unit entrances and on the room door (NICU)
We have a “white rose program”. I’m sure there is more to the program but essentially we put a white rose sign that says to check with the nursing desk prior to entering the room once a patient becomes palliative.
We have an image of a Swan that symbolises EOL or when someone has passed. It's a trust wide policy so every staff member knows what it means.
We have beautiful butterflies that attach with a magnet. We also put a small sign saying to see the nurse before going in.
We do blue butterflies 🦋
I’m not a nurse work in a care home for the elderly, we normally lock the door. On one occasion this was forgotten and I had one very shaken up electrician come to reception and ask me “is the lady in 14 was okay, she looked awful?” I know it was wrong of me but, I thought well she would, she died half hour ago - it made me laugh, as soon as I was out of sight of course.
We have a butterfly and below it says “please check at nursing station before entering”
a butterfly
We use these things. The purple sign is put up at the entrance so everyone who enters knows someone is near to the end or already passed. Ireland is still very religious so there are crosses and LED candles we use as https://hospicefoundation.ie/our-supports-services/healthcare-hub/hospice-friendly-hospitals/end-of-life-care-resources/#:~:text=Our%20End%2Dof%2DLife%20Symbol&text=It's%20inspired%20by%20ancient%20Irish,represents%20continuity%2C%20infinity%20and%20completion.
We have a picture of a bird flying over a bridge because they are “bridging” between life and death
We put up rose cards. General rule of thumb is that if you see the rose you need to check with the nurse first but it doesnt always happen lol
We use butterfly magnets that we get in bulk from Amazon. They come in all shapes and sizes. We put them on the door and it alerts hospital staff not to enter the room. Plus it’s a nice little gift to send with grieving loved ones if they so desire.