Abstract

Appropriate perinatal bereavement care can benefit bereaved parents and reduce further distress. Poor training can impact healthcare professionals (HCPs) at a personal and professional level. HCPs have reported poor preparation to care for bereaved parents. Hence, high-quality perinatal bereavement care training is essential. We describe the TEARDROP workshop for perinatal bereavement care training and an evaluation of its pilot and first workshop (held in a tertiary maternity hospital). Anonymous questionnaires were used to evaluate these sessions. The TEARDROP workshop was created in line with the Irish National Bereavement Standards and based on a participant-centred teaching model. Overall, participants were highly satisfied with TEARDROP. The level of information and quality of teaching in the pilot and workshop scored very high. Most participants stated not being adequately prepared to communicate or care for bereaved parents and had not received prior training on discussing post-mortems with bereaved parents. Participants would recommend the workshop to a colleague and agreed it should be available nationally. This is one of few perinatal bereavement care training for maternity staff in Ireland. These results highlight the importance of the TEARDROP workshop for HCPs. TEARDROP can contribute to improve the quality of bereavement care provided in Irish maternity units/hospitals.