Abstract
•Evaluate the impact of memory stone making on staff, caregivers, and families.•Describe a novel approach to legacy work which is inexpensive, easy to implement and sustainable. Legacy work (LW) refers to interventions that provide memory making at the end of life. Memory stone (MS) making has been a form of LW used at our institution for over 4 years whereby patients' fingerprints are placed onto glass stones and given to loved ones. LW is a powerful tool that creates meaning for patients, families, and staff, allowing everyone to honor each patient's humanity as well as their own. The impact of MS making has never been evaluated and its meaning to families/staff has never been measured. We aimed to evaluate the perception of meaningfulness and value to families/staff regarding MS making in the hospital setting. Comment cards were added to LW kits located in each ICU and ward (26 units) and staff/families were invited to complete them after experiencing MS making. Responders were asked whether the activity was of value to them (yes/no) and to rate how meaningful the experience was on a scale from 0–10. Families/staff could also share comments. Card collection is ongoing. To date, 45 cards have been collected from various units. Of these, 84% (38) rated the experience highly meaningful and 92% (41) valued the activity. Comments were analyzed for themes. The top themes were gratitude, creating a lasting memory, and feeling comfort/support. Other themes included feeling a sense of connection and having something positive to focus on. MS making promoted perception of meaning at end of life for both families and staff. MS making is a simple and effective LW tool to implement in a stressful and busy hospital setting. Building this program was relatively inexpensive and had a high yield in regard to family/staff satisfaction and meaning. This poster will explore the ongoing measure of impact this program has on our families/staff, as well as provide a solid example to other institutions that may want to adopt similar practices.
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