Training in bereavement communication – attitudes to guidance and training for clinical photographers

Abstract

Bereavement is one of the most emotionally intense situations healthcare staff can find themselves in and requires extensive communication training to work in. While other healthcare staff receive specific training in bereavement, clinical photographers do not receive much, if any, in the form of bereavement communication training. The lack of training can lead to clinical photographers feeling ill-prepared to communicate with bereaved parents. This paper aims to identify if clinical photographers feel there is a need for training or written guidance and what they would wish to see included within it. A questionnaire was distributed to clinical photographers via the Institute of Medical Illustrators to gather opinions, results indicate that the majority feel there is a need.

Keywords:

• Bereavement
• bereavement communication
• photography
• clinical photographers
• clinical photography
• education

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Correction

Acknowledgements

The authors thanks to Amy Lake, Bolette Jones, Chris Tetley, the entire department in Medical Illustration at the Heath Hospital, and the Institute of Medical Illustrators for their support during this work. And thanks to Gavin Halbert as well.

Disclosure statement

The author reports no conflict of interest.

Correction Statement

This article was originally published with errors, which have now been corrected in the online version. Please see Correction (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17453054.2022.2069714)

Additional information

Funding

This study was submitted as part as part of the Postgraduate Certificate in Clinical Photography at Cardiff University.