In the late 1970s and early 1980s, several individuals at Lutheran Hospital in LaCrosse, Wisconsin were providing more than just "routine" care for families who lost a child through miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, stillbirth or newborn death.

Maternal Nurse Practitioners Kathryn Hill Goettl, RN, MSN, and Carolyn Smiley, RN,  MNP, were providing nursing care and follow-up after discharge for grieving families on the obstetrical and gynecological units.

In their work with bereaved parents they became increasingly aware of the pain and grief families experience.  They identified the need for a one-to-one helping relationship between counselors and grieving families.

Offering one-to-one support, Goettl and Smiley provided information, guidance and follow-up and were in charge of setting up a grief conference for the bereaved family.  It is the nursing practice of Goettl and Smiley that serves as a model for the one-to-one helping relationship that is unique to the RTS program.

Resolve Through Sharing (RTS) officially began in September 1981 with the first RTS Counselor Training Course.  Today, families are seen in the antepartum clinic, same-day surgery, the emergency room, operating and recovery room, the gynecology unit, the labor and delivery, postpartum and the neonatal intensive care unit.  The parent support group, which hold its first meeting in October 1981, continues to meet on the third Thursday of every month.  RTS Bereavement Services was in the forefront of recognizing the needs of people experiencing miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies.  This came about through the experience of the RTS Counselors working with these families and because of the research done by Rana Limbo and Sara Wheeler.

Several national speaking engagements by RTS Counselors in the spring of 1983 led to the national program.  What began in 1981 at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center with a few RTS Counselors has grown to a program involving thousands of health care professionals across the world.  RTS Counselor and Coordinator Training Courses are now taught throughout the United States, Canada, England, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, Japan and the Philippines.  Bereavement Services, located at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, serves as a regional networking office for all RTS Counselors and Coordinators.  Through Bereavement Services, RTS plans and organizes conferences and seminars, sends out the Counselor Connection Newsletter, and offers a catalog of educational resources to families and professionals.

Here at NMCP, we have adopted the RTS format to implement bereavement support services.