Rutgers Experts Available to Discuss Their First-Hand Experience of Connecting Dying Covid-19 Patients with Family

Since hospitals implemented no-visitor policies, health care providers and patient advocates have stepped in, using cell phones and iPads to connect Covid-19 patients with loved ones.

Noticing the need for patient and family support services in the medical intensive care unit at University Hospital in Newark, Jenna Marcus, an assistant professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and gynecologic oncologist at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, launched the “Palliative Care Mobile Unit” with the support of hospital administration. Over the past month, for 24 hours a day, six days a week, the team of clinicians have helped to connect patients and families, provide support for patient symptoms and engage in discussions about death and dying.

“While Covid-19 has created an unprecedented time in healthcare, it has also brought about an unparalleled approach to patient and family support for those who are dying,” said Marcus. “Prior to the pandemic, our approach to palliative care would involve in-depth, in-person conversations about goals of care and management of symptoms. If a patient was dying in the hospital, we could bring in family and spiritual support services to be with them until the last moments. COVID19 has required us to change our approach and to do so quickly. Facilitating the connection between patients and families via phone calls and video chat services has been our link to humanity and the path to ease suffering for those terminally affected.”

Paul Duberstein, a palliative care expert at Rutgers School of Public Health, said that by allowing dying patients to see the people who mean the most to them, hospitals and clinicians like Marcus’ team can comfort patients and ease the psychological pain of family members. “Emotional connection at the bedside, including the expression of tender feelings, forgiveness, regret, and gratitude, along with prayer, can alleviate patient suffering and help family members feel a sense of peace and experience less guilt, anger, confusion, and anxiety,” he said. “Fostering meaningful bedside connections can also decrease the emotional trauma on clinicians who have had to bear witness to too many deaths.”

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