Here are some initiatives, pilots and family related news from The Cardiac Critical Care Unit, the ICU for the Labatt Family Heart Centre.
Renovation of Room 53 for long stay patients
Arguably the biggest structural change to the CCCU in years will be the complete renovation of the large room 53 facing out onto the Atrium as a long stay location. Improvements include all new decorations to make the room more attractive, more privacy for individual patients and families, new lighting that can be dimmed for each bedside and the turning of the storage room into a play and therapy room. This renovation has been in the planning for almost two years and apparently the work is now imminent.
'My Child's Day' program piloted
Alison Hassall, a Physiotherapy Academic and Clinicial Specialist, and her PT colleagues have been working diligently on 'My Childs Day', a binder that will give parents instructions, diagrams and care plans from all services helping the family. Alison has spent over a year developing the program, consulting with all services in the CCCU and stakeholders concerned that care data was stored outside the computer system, and then piloting the project. This Rehab championed family centred pilot sprang from a staff sense that patient care was becoming increasingly represented by data separated by discipline into separate spreadsheets and that this data was neither accessible nor particularly comprehensible to parents. Nor can the SIMs computer system import other file types like Word documents, pictures etc. Families also want both cutting edge medical support and continuing and expanded relationships with PTs, OTs, dieticians, respiratory therapists and other allied professionals. We are very excited about this family centred initiative and plan to hold a design contest to create an extremely functional 'binder' that could be used by other teams in the hospital. We will be able to share more over the coming months.
New APN in the CCCU assists families and staff
If there is one missing patient support that sums up the difference between a ward and an ICU it is the lack of Nurse Practitioners. These highly trained nurses really get to know your child and feed this textured patient and family information to medical staff. Nursing staff are very excited that Linda Fazari has been rotated from 4 into the ICU as a new Adanced Practise Nurse role in the CCCU to float where needed; staff joke that Linda is now "taking patients" as she regularly follows several patients and families. The experience, knowledge of 4, non-rotating presence and ability to assist both families and other staff was hailed by fellow nurses who shared this exciting initiative.
Parent coffee group extends from 4D to CCCU
I was very happy to hear the 4D parent coffee group, started by social worker Ruta Niedra and colleagues in 2006 will now be extended to the CCCU. Yeah!! Currently about 5-8 parents participate each Friday afternoon and a social worker organizing the groups described the parent ability to air concerns and share information as nipping problems in the bud. Parents are given a feedback sheet to fill out before they leave. It is fantastic news that CCCU parents can talk with other parents in a staff supported environment.
Other Initiatives:
* CCCU is exploring having a nurse who initially meets the family continue to checkin on the patient and family to offer communication and contact consistency. This Contact Nurse will be of particular help to long stay patients and patients facing great uncertainty and their families assimilating lots of new information and getting comfortable with a new team.
* the CCCU welcome binder is to be updated and staff are updating cardiac articles at AboutKidsHealth.
* the Labatt Family Heart Centre "Family Day" will be held in September
* a Transition Day event to support patients approaching adult care will be held in May
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