Bereavement Coordinator- Part time
Erlanger - North
Summary
The Perinatal Bereavement Coordinator is a registered professional nurse responsible for coordinating and overseeing perinatal bereavement services. This role provides compassionate support to patients and families experiencing pregnancy, fetal, neonatal, or infant loss; serves as a clinical resource for staff and providers; ensures compliance with state and hospital reporting requirements; and coordinates education, support services, community outreach, and interdisciplinary collaboration to promote high-quality, family-centered bereavement care throughout Women's and Infants' Services.
Job description
Job Summary
The Perinatal Bereavement Coordinator is a registered professional nurse responsible for coordinating and overseeing perinatal bereavement services. This role provides compassionate support to patients and families experiencing pregnancy, fetal, neonatal, or infant loss; serves as a clinical resource for staff and providers; ensures compliance with state and hospital reporting requirements; and coordinates education, support services, community outreach, and interdisciplinary collaboration to promote high-quality, family-centered bereavement care throughout Women's and Infants' Services.
Department Position Summary
The Perinatal Bereavement Coordinator is a registered professional nurse responsible for the development, coordination, oversight, and delivery of comprehensive perinatal bereavement services across Women's and Infants' Services. This role provides direct and indirect care to patients and families experiencing pregnancy, fetal, neonatal, or infant loss while serving as a clinical leader and resource for nursing staff, physicians, and interdisciplinary teams.
The coordinator ensures compliance with all state, legal, regulatory, and hospital requirements related to fetal and neonatal loss reporting and documentation. Responsibilities include maintaining pregnancy loss records, reporting fetal deaths to the Tennessee Vital Records Department, managing required compliance documentation, and serving as a liaison with funeral homes, pathology, genetics, maternal-fetal medicine specialists, and obstetric providers.
This position provides clinical support and education to nursing staff across Labor & Delivery, OB Emergency Department, Mother-Baby, and designated Emergency Department units at both downtown and East campuses. The coordinator develops and delivers ongoing staff education, provides bedside bereavement support, coordinates comfort care services and genetic referrals, manages bereavement photography and family memory-sharing services, and ensures families receive appropriate discharge education and community support resources.
This position supports the Never Forgotten Program, providing grief support and bereavement follow-up care to families experiencing pregnancy loss, neonatal death, or infant death. Responsibilities include facilitating support groups such as Moments to Share, coordinating remembrance and community awareness events, managing bereavement resources and donor-supported programs, and expanding access to perinatal and neonatal loss services throughout the region. Additionally, this role serves as an educator, consultant, and community advocate by promoting bereavement awareness, providing staff and community education, participating in local and regional committees, and supporting initiatives that improve outcomes and compassionate care for women, infants, and families experiencing loss.
Requirements
- Graduate of approved school of nursing, associate's degree in nursing
- Minimum of five (5) years of experience in a tertiary care Women's Health, Neonatal, or Pediatric environment
- At least one (1) year of clinical nursing experience in Labor & Delivery or NICU
- Current licensure as a Registered Nurse in the State of Tennessee
- BLS completed prior to going to unit/department and maintained ongoing thereafter
- NRP certification within 6 months of hire
- ACLS required prior to completion of departmental orientation and maintained ongoing thereafter
- Tennessee licensure or multistate licensure from a compact state must be obtained within three months of hire for non-Tennessee residents
- Preferred: Certification in bereavement related field
- Preferred: Management experience in the Women's Health field
Company overview
Erlanger - North Hospital is a key component of the Erlanger Health System, a comprehensive non-profit academic medical center based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. As a community hospital serving the Signal Mountain, Red Bank, and North Chattanooga communities, Erlanger North provides essential healthcare services including 24/7 emergency care, sports and family medicine practices, an inpatient seniors program, and an accredited sleep disorders center. The hospital operates as part of a larger health system that includes multiple hospitals and facilities across a four-state region encompassing southeast Tennessee, north Georgia, north Alabama, and western North Carolina. Erlanger Health System is recognized as a Level I Trauma Center and serves as the primary teaching hospital for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine. With a history dating back to 1889, the system treats over one million patients annually and employs between 5,000-10,000 healthcare professionals across its network. Erlanger North specifically focuses on delivering accessible, high-quality community-based care while benefiting from the resources and expertise of the larger academic medical system.