So coping with death, a lot of people believe it or not, can really screw this up. And I'll tell you how and why people can do that. But let's talk about what we really should do. When somebody dies, it may not or it may be their first time that a loved one has passed away. us as medical providers, we may have seen death many, many, many times. So we have a different attitude about the whole thing.
But one of the biggest things to remember is to put yourself in their shoes you want to you want to show empathy. Acting is okay. But we really just want to make sure that we're making our patient's family as comfortable as possible. So empathy is fantastic. Try to put yourself in their shoes. You also want to go to a private area, you don't want to give deliver the news of death out in public.
It's just not right and it's just not nice. So we want to get into a nice price. That room. If there's clergy available, that's a fantastic resource as well. But when we're delivering this information, we need to speak in words that they will understand. And words that don't provide them with extra hope.
And I know it's a little bit weird, but we have to use words like dead death. We shouldn't use words like, Oh, he's gone. Well, okay, where they go. And we Oh my god, one of my biggest ones is when somebody says, oh, he expired. Well, you know what, my father wasn't a carton of yogurt. He was a human being.
So human beings don't expire, they die. So be careful with the wording that you're using with the family members or friends there. Another thing to keep in mind is silence is okay. You don't have to create small talk between you and the family of that patient who's just died. Let them let them do what they need to do. Listen to them.
Is it okay to cry? Absolutely. I've done it before. But don't focus on you. We want to focus on the family. of the person who just died.
And also one thing that I'm really big on is if the family is okay with it, it is okay once you get the point of the the patient cleaned up, to have the family, go in there, talk to the patient talk up, touch them completely fine as long as it's appropriate, not like a medical examiner case, but allow them time to deal with them and and to grieve. We never want to rush people along. A lot of medical facilities will have like a viewing room where we can move the body and the family can have private time there. But we really want to focus on family. And we want to treat them with respect. And don't try to put up that wall and be really cold to them because it's just not going to go over very well.
Pretend like it's your first time as well. And the patient's family will respond to you much better with that. Just be nice, I guess is what I'm trying to say.