Nine nurses from the Columbus Community Hospital (CCH) Emergency Room and Women’s and Childbirth Services recently completed RTS Bereavement Training, a two-day intensive course about supporting patients and families whose baby dies during pregnancy or shortly after birth.

RTS, formerly known as Resolve Through Sharing, was developed in the early 1980’s at Gundersen Lutheran Health System, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The training addresses the needs of families who have experienced an early pregnancy loss, still birth or newborn death. RTS promotes an interdisciplinary approach to meeting bereaved families at the point of their need.

"CCH is committed to helping patients and families through some of the most difficult events of their life," said Peg Haggerty, CCH Vice President of Patient Care. "By training staff to empathize and be present with families who have experienced a pregnancy loss, stillbirth or newborn death, we have set a high standard of care unique to this area."

Haggerty, RN, EdD and Heidi Wallace, MSW, were trained to be RTS Coordinators by RTS Counselors through Gundersen Lutheran. As RTS Coordinators, Haggerty and Wallace provided the training for the staff at CCH.

"By collaborating with the National RTS office at Gundersen Lutheran Health System, the trained nursing staff at CCH is able to continue to receive the most up to date information and literature in the field of perinatal loss," said Wallace, a social worker in the CCH Patient and Family Services Department.

For more information on perinatal bereavement care at Columbus Community Hospital, please contact Wallace at (920) 623-1281 or Haggerty at (920) 623-1269.