Technical remarks without empathy at the distancing nursing office and family: the pitfalls of the announcement of a death were discussed via an educational role -playing Wednesday in Santexpo, a large hospital fair organized in Paris.
For the occasion, a meeting room of the exhibition center, Porte de Versailles, turned into mini-theater for almost an hour and a half. To embody two grieving members of a family, two actresses, facing a doctor and a nurse, played by a professional and a retiree from the health world, in front of an audience of around forty of their peers.
After each scenario-an announcement to poorly managed relatives, one that is better-everyone debrief under the supervision of Nancy Kentish-Barnes, sociologist, research manager of public assistance-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), and Professor Bertrand Guidet, president of the Ethics Committee at the Hospital Federation of France (FHF).
In the first scenario, Cyril Hazif-Thomas, psychiatrist at the Brest CHRU, plays a head of service who quickly evacuates the announcement of a death, between medical jargon-“extremely abneemed”-and your abrupt: “You were still aware of his state, right?”.
Her character is not helped by Chantal Cateau, member of France Assos Health (voice of the users of the health system) and who camps a nurse (she was before her retirement) little concerned, because “absent in recent days”. “We have no answer, that’s enough to be badly treated like that!” Let go one of the daughters of the deceased, outraged, embodied by Isabelle Woussen, actress and clown in hospital.
– “very realistic” –
“We have grown the line,” said Professor Guide. “It is unfortunately very realistic”, retorts in the assistance Eric Oziol, head of service at the Béziers hospital center. In the eyes of this manager, the “key point” is “how we perceive death in medical teams and outside”.
In services often confronted with the deaths of patients, there is a “little risk of trivialization”, agrees Profession. In this first scenario, the head of service remained standing behind his office, facing the sitting family. “The office is the cat!” Breathe Eric Oziol. This piece of furniture introduces a distancing in a “non-verbal communication” which will painfully print the memories of relatives of the disappeared, underlines Nancy Kentish-Barnes.
In the second version, the head of the service and the nurse welcome family members before all sit on nearby chairs and arranged in a circle. Here, the medical lexicon remains on the closet and the caregivers are attached to the patient’s last moments with a soothing tone. The head of service even offers “another exchange time” if this ad is too “brutal” for loved ones.
– “PHRASE disturbing” –
But the complexity of the exercise arises in front of the talent of the two actresses, in particular tears and distress served by Ariane Boumendil. The actress even ends up destabilizing her game partners from the medical profession.
In the public, Dr. Michel Dintimille, who officiates in Martinique, notes a “disturbing sentence” pronounced by Chantal Cateau: “+We took care of your loved one, because of his kindness with the caregivers+… Ah, and in the opposite case?”.
Chantal Cateau recognizes that she “looked for something to say” at some point. “We fill because we are uncomfortable, but we sometimes have to give way to silence so that the information will make its way,” dissects Nancy Kentish-Barnes.
“At one point, there were too many words of the doctors and the family’s questions could no longer come,” notes Isabelle Woussen, taken in the game.
“Sometimes, the best to do for a doctor, after the announcement, is to be silent, to listen, to hold a shoulder, but not to fall into the arms of people either,” concludes Profession.
By Philippe Grelard / Paris (AFP) / © 2025 AFP
