CCCU start Vital Smart family and staff communication training

I am very happy to hear that Dr Stephen Schwartz, Head of the Division of Cardiac Critical Care, Karen Kinnear, Director of Child Health Services at Labatt Family Heart Centre and Cecilia Hyslop, CCCU Advanced Practise Nurses educator, travelled last weekend to begin the Vital Smart communication training which the Sasha Bella Fund is helping to fund along with other family funds like Wyatt's Warriors. The training focuses on staff learning how to turn confrontation with parents into staff-family partnership that reestablishes trust and accountability. Vital Smart also works on staff-staff communication following publication of the study 'Silence Kills' which discovered the need for better staff peer support as "All too often, "well-intentioned people in healthcare institutions choose not to speak up when they’re concerned with behavior, decisions, or actions of a colleague" and fewer than 10 percent of physicians, nurses and other clinical staff directly confront their colleagues about their concerns. This topic raises the issue of staff peer support as a core mechanism for patient safety and staff communication with family about adverse events.