Grief/bereavement training

During my nurse training I remember having an hours session on Grief and bereavement.
At the time I thought that this was fine, I thought that these professionals knew best and knew how to train their nurses. 
I don't know how long the current bereavement section of nurse training lasts but i'm sure its probably not much longer than I got. 

Until you actually go through a bereavement and grief I don't think you realise how a ridiculously small amount of training that is.

How can nurses be expected to help their patients if they are inadequately prepared for it. 
It's not the nurse fault, it's the systems fault. 

There is not enough emphasis on bereavement and when you think about it if they were trained properly then they would be able to help people before they became too unwell or needed health care. Surely it's better to prevent rather than cure. 

Wouldn't it be better to invest in more bereavement midwives and nurses to help people going through a bereavement or to give input even before the loss, therefore reducing the rates of people needing crisis care or inpatient care. The government is always looking for ways to save money and this would surely save the NHS money in the long run. 

I know through my own nursing experiences I often felt ill prepared to answer patients questions regarding loss, especially when I first trained and was only 19 years of age. I didn't have the life experiences to draw on at that time to be able to reflect on my own feelings and how I dealt with things. 

I know grief cannot be dealt with in the same way with everyone. Everyone deals with loss and bereavement differently, but if nurse and doctor training included more training and revisited it at regular intervals for them to reflect on any experiences gained, then surely this would be beneficial to their patients.

I'm sure if they asked nursing staff they would be quite happy to do more training, most nurses like to undergo further training to increase and update their skills. 
All Nursing staff have to undergo continual professional development to keep their registration up to date so I don't see why bereavement training isn't/couldn't be included in the mandatory training sessions.

Recently, due to our loss and experiences, we have found that a lot of grief counselling is provided through local hospices and through volunteers as there are not enough bereavement counselors within the NHS. We also found that in Leeds alone there are 32,000 people awaiting bereavement counselling. 

It doesn't take a genius to see that this in unacceptable and shows that the current NHS systems in place to deal with grief and loss is totally inadequate. 

I know we will get told that the reason is lack of funding, I think that is a totally poor excuse and an inadequate reason. People going through a loss deserve the same standard of care as every one else and should be able to access help when they need it.

If you agree with anything I have said tonight go along and sign our petition on Change.org calling for the Minister for Health to address the current lack of bereavement support. 

 http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/department-of-health-to-ensure-a-coordinated-package-of-aftercare-for-all-families-following-the-loss-of-a-baby-child-which-will-involve-midwives-gps-and-full-support-networks?share_id=Sgythsyjcp&utm_campaign=friend_inviter_chat&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition&utm_term=permissions_dialog_false …