End of life nurse appeals for homemade property bags

An end of life nurse is leading an initiative to return patient belongings to families in homemade bags.

Lead nurse Debbie Williams at Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust was struck by how ‘awful’ she felt carrying her mother’s belongings home from hospital in a plastic bag after her death in 2014.

She was inspired to start an appeal calling for homemade bags to be donated to her NHS Trust to replace the plastic patient bags – noting how it is the ‘simple things that make the difference’.

‘As nurses we want everything to be OK and we can’t make it OK all the time,’ she told Nursing in Practice.

‘But we can give something… something that is just that little bit extra.’

She explained how it was the ‘simple things’ that helped make a difference.

‘It’s a cup of tea, it’s a little knitted heart, it’s when we give [back] property and it’s in a lovely homemade bag that someone’s taken the time [to make] and it’s not in a horrible plastic NHS bag.’

Ms Williams first started the initiative in 2015 at the hospice she worked in before introducing it again in 2022 when she returned to the NHS in her current role as lead end of life nurse in Gloucestershire.

She said: ‘It originated after my mum died [in 2014] and she was in an emergency department… it was all awful.

‘It was all sad and absolutely terrible but the thing that absolutely stuck in my mind was walking away from the ward after. I can remember all the details and then in my hand I just had this green plastic bag that said patient’s property on it.

‘It just had her nightgown, her cardigan, her watch and her rings, and [it was] really terrible… it was really sad but it’s just what we do.

‘At the time I worked in a hospice and once I went back to work, I suddenly realised when I saw relatives walking across that we were doing the same thing.

‘We were sending relatives out the hospice [with plastic bags], so I introduced it there.

‘Then I moved back to the NHS… and put out an appeal out in 2022 and had lots of bags then.

‘The feedback we get is just lovely. You wouldn’t think people would notice. I never thought I would have noticed particularly what my mum’s property was in, but they really do, so it’s really resonated.’

After the success of the first appeal, Ms Williams, who has been a nurse for 30 years, recently reappealed for more bags after almost running out.

She has already received 30 new bags and hopes to receive more.

‘We appealed back in May and we’ve had so many little parcels in the last week with three or four bags that people have made,’ she said.

‘They’ve all got a little story with them. It’s people’s generosity and kindness… it just seems to resonate with lots of people.’

She added: ‘Our overall delivery of end-of-life care is of a really high standard across our trust. We do really well.

‘We can support patients, we can support families, we can be kind and compassionate, and all those things. And I think it [the initiative] just makes bereavement – that whole experience – something slightly positive.’

Ms Williams now hopes to see the initiative rolled out across other organisations.

‘This is really simple,’ she said. ‘I think if there’s any NHS Trusts, hospitals, or hospices [who want to do it] as well, it’s really simple.

‘It was just an appeal, it’s just a bag pack, and it’s really simple.  I think absolutely it makes a difference, and you can see it’s resonated with so many people.

‘As a nurse, I’ve always felt embarrassed [using] that plastic bag. It’s simple, cost-free and meaningful’.