Precious Prints: Expanding Nationally

In five years, the Precious Prints project has brought comfort to more than 500 area families who have experienced the loss of a child. Now a new effort aims to take the project nationwide.

Precious Prints comforts grieving families with a sterling silver pendant bearing the fingerprint of their child. The project was developed at the College of NursPrecious Prints Projecting in partnership with Precious Metal Prints, a local business. First launched at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in January 2012, it has expanded to include all major health systems in Knox County, with fundraising and project management handled by the Student Nurses Association.

In response to wide-ranging inquiries from organizations interested in establishing a similar program, Dean Victoria Niederhauser and Clinical Instructor Lynne Miller are developing a plan to take Precious Prints to a national level. They are working to create two models of delivery—one for nursing schools and one for health care facilities.

Both models will include best practices, suggestions, methods, and sample documents and forms, along with information on conducting staff education and training. The academic model will include resources for student nursing organizations to implement the project at a children’s hospital in their area.

As part of this work, Miller is collecting feedback from families and nurses who have participated in the project so far, organizing the new material, and working to package the methodology for national distribution. “We are currently looking to identify a school of nursing and a health care facility to pilot both models in the fall,” she said. “It would be a wonderful opportunity for this project to be available to people in need beyond our region.”

To learn more about the Precious Prints project, contact Lynne Miller at lmille44@utk.edu.