Summary
We held a Death Cafe for Health Care Professionals on Sept. 19th, 2018. We had a great group and a terrific discussion. Many health care professionals struggle with caring for patients and their families who are dying and have little opportunity to debrief or reflect. We are also subjected to moral distress as patients/families' goals of care may not align with what the health care team's goals are. By sharing our stories about loss both personal and profressional we realized how normal it is to feel anxious, frightened, uncertain, sad, and frustrated at times. The overall theme that emerged from our group discussion was that death was very much a part of our everyday lives no matter what specialty within healthcare we work in. The feedback from all attendees was positive and we hope to host another Death Cafe after the first of the year.