Developing a process to support perinatal nurses after a critical event.

The work of perinatal nurses sometimes includes emergencies involving death, or near death, which can leave health care providers with feelings of stress and grief. After experiencing a particularly stressful period, nurses at our organization identified processes to help themselves recover and to support each other. The result of this work is a written plan to facilitate the support of perinatal nurses after critical events. This article describes the development and implementation of this plan.