'The Pause' - An idea changing how hospitals mark the end of life.

Nurse Jonathan Bartels watched his colleagues throw off their gloves, turn away and leave the room. Later, he thought on their shared feelings of vacancy and defeat.

Together, they’d just spent 45 desperate minutes trying to save the life of a young woman.
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This was the day he first conceived of, ‘The Pause’.

Bartels’ idea was for all staff present to share 45 seconds:
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• To bear witness to the end of a life.
  
  
• To consider the loss to all those who’d loved them.
  
  
• To acknowledge the efforts invested in trying to save them.

It's a collective acknowledgement of the life now gone. Independent of faith or culture, it's taking a moment to consider those who’ve just lost a friend, a sibling, a parent.

The Pause offers participants a breathing space. After a long period of intensity, - it offers:

• time for their exhausted bodies to recover.
  
  
• time for all involved to acknowledge their efforts.
  
  
• time for all those their racing minds to slow.​

Perhaps most important of all, it shows families their loved one had mattered. That a desperate battle had been fought to save their life.

The Pause does this:
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• without disrupting the safety of other patients.
  
  
• regardless of individual faith or belief.
  
  
• all in under a minute.​

   When I learn of an idea so simple, yet so powerful. I’m eager to adopt it into my own work.

    Its true that, at first glance, celebrant’s get involved a bit late for The Pause. But there’s always potential to improve yourself; a way to grow.

I created a new Pause.

When my duties to a family are complete.
Before meeting the next family ...
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I take a minute:
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• To think about the life of the person I’d last written for.
  
  
• To remember what I’d learned about their life.
  
  
• To ask if I’d done all I could; how I could do better.

In many of the funerals I conduct, I tell grieving families and friends, that people 'live on', in the thoughts and memories of all who knew them.

For me, this is not some bandied platitude. What happens to a person's essence, their personality, their soul after death; defies observation or measure.

The majority of theories of their fate are a matter of belief; of faith.
It's unlikely they'll ever be proven.

Whatever happens to our non-corporeal selves after death:

• If people continue to remember us.
• If people continue to think of us,

At least some of who we are, continues to exist.

Each time I take a 'Pause'

• I give silent respect to a human life. 
• I help to preserve, part of who they were. 
• I prepare myself. I ready myself to do all I can for the next family.

Learn More:
https://thepause.me/

What are your thoughts on 'The Pause'?

Would its use on someone you care for, bring comfort?
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Tell me in the comments.