There are no words anyone can say to prepare someone for a death in the family, but it is even more difficult when the patient is someone who is young and has his or her whole life ahead of them. I say this from experience, it has been two years since my cousin lost his wife from cancer; she was only 42 years old. I remember trying to find words to console my cousin but there weren’t any, all I could say was “cousin I am here if you need anything”. When I would go visit him I would just sit there talk with him trying to keep his mind occupied. As a health care professional we don’t have the luxury of consoling one patient, but we do have the ability of making someone feel like we are he for them. When it comes to communicating the patient’s condition you must be honest and sincere but mindful of the situation. The family member doesn’t want the information to be sugar coded, and then find out it is much worst. If the patient is dying, I would sit the family member down at eye level and even hold their hands if I have to. I would tell them that we have done all that we can do, but we are here to help in any way we can.
If the patient has no hope of getting better, I would wait until the family members had there moment to take it all in and they are emotionally ready to listen; then I would tell them about the importance of getting the funeral arrangements ready ahead of time. If they can afford it or the patient has life insurance, I would give them a list of funeral homes and floral shops just to give them a head start. If they don’t have the finances I would give them some options. First, see if the family members can chip in and help cover the cost. Second, they can look into cremating the body which is cheaper or lastly, they can go to their local county coroner’s office and sign a release of the body. Either way it is not an easy decision. But if the patient is