Saying Good Bye To Dying Family Member Over the Phone: A Scripted Conversation

 

Covid-19でご家族を亡くされた方に心からお悔やみ申し上げます。最期にご家族と対面でお別れをすることができなかったご遺族のお気持ちを考えると心が痛むばかりです。同時に医療現場では医療器具や、人員の不足に加え、院内感染が増加の兆しにあるなか、感染のリスクと隣り合わせで全力で医療に携わっていらっしゃる医療従事者の姿をニュースで見るたびに、何か自分にできないことがないかという思いが強くありました。そのような中VitalTalk（バイタルトーク）という米国初の医療コミュニケーショントレーニングの創始者の一人であるDr. Anthony Back（ワシントン大学）がその他の協力者と作成したものの中に、家族が電話でお別れのいうためのスクリプトがあるのを見つけ、日本でも今後もさらに感染者の死亡が増えていくと予想されている中、少しでも医療従事者の参考になればと日本語版を作成しました。この一本の電話は孤独の中入院生活を余儀なくされて、もう話すことができないかもしれない重篤な患者の方が家族の声を聞く事で少しでも安心して旅立てるかもしれない、また見送るご家族が今後その喪失を乗り越えていく大きな糧になるものです。以下VitalTalk日本版からもダウンロードができます。https://www.vitaltalk.org/wp-content/uploads/VitalTalk_COVID_Japanese.pdf

 

It is truly disheartening to see the damage caused by Covid-19. My heart goes out to those who lost loved ones as well as the medical professionals who work day and night to save lives despite the lack of medical equipment and supplies all the while under the risk of being infected. Japan is expected to face even tougher consequences and more medical professionals attend deaths and deaths related conversations with families.  VitalTalk, a United States based institution that trains and coaches medical professionals to improve communication skills offers a variety of resources online. One of them is the “Saying Good bye to Dying Family Member Over the Phone Conversation Script” that is used to facilitate a conversation of saying good bye over the phone.  I adapted the script to fit into the context of Japanese culture and the Japanese version is now available.  This phone call will bring some comfort and peace to gravelly-ill patients who might be suffering from physical, social, psychological and spiritual pain in isolation. On the other hand, grieving families also benefit from being able to say good bye to their loved one.  This powerful tool provides medical professionals some guideline in facilitating this difficult conversation.

 

Japanese version of the script can be downloaded from the link below;

https://www.vitaltalk.org/wp-content/uploads/VitalTalk_COVID_Japanese.pdf

 

#2 電話での別れのスクリプトrevised

#3 saying-goodbye-to-dying-family-member-over-the-phone-conversation-script