2009 Project Database for Nursing Leadership Institute and Health Leaders Institute

The Nursing Leadership Institute & Health Leaders Institute 2009 Combined Project Database is an excellent resource listing hospital teams recently engaged in particular hospital and care research projects.

The database is organized into four sections: Care Delivery, Healthy Workplace, Business of Healthcare, and Personal/Professional/Team Development. The first section, Care Delivery, is further broken down into Models of Care, Care Pathways/Best Practices, Client/Patient-Centred Care, Introducing or Changing Clinical Program/Practice, Patient Flow, Community Development/Population Health.

If you put the following words into the PDF document search - Hospital for Sick Children, parent, palliative - here are some of the results. (staff, phone number ommitted and some typos corrected).

Family-centred developmentally supportive care mapping for infants and families in the NICU. Develop & implement a Family-Centred care map which incorporates best practice guidelines and system of evaluation, Hospital for Sick Children [project is supported by NICU's staff and parent Family Care Committee on which I participate]

Improving transitions for families with serious prenatal diagnoses to pediatric care. Document the transitions process of prenatally diagnosed infants from Mt Sinai to SickKids; Develop a tool for families to document & share experiences; Develop plan for disseminating info to providers. Hospital for Sick Children

Advance Care Planning (End of Life). Implement process hospital-wide for developing plans of care for children with life-threatening illness that reflect communication between healthcare professionals & families about wants, needs and desires for end of life care. Hospital for Sick Children

Addressing diversity in meeting child & family needs. Professional dev't program that addresses new standards of care; issues of RT diversity. Action focused program for interprofessional staff. Hospital for Sick Children

Opening the door to a natural death. Develop a reflective practice tool for health care professionals, addressing their values, attitudes and beliefs about end-of-life. Hamilton Health Sciences Centre

CCU Guidelines to support the delivery of quality end of life care. The development of guidelines to assist the team in providing quality end of life care to our ICU patients and their families. Guidelines may include withdrawal of care, family meetings, analgesia & sedation, organ & tissue donation. Guelph General Hospital

Engaging patients and families as part of the healthcare team. Developing guidelines for fully engaging patients and families as part of the healthcare team.
Riverview Health Centre

A tool to facilitate daily care of long-term hospitalized children in the CCU and PICU. The creation of a tool to facilitate consistent daily care for children who experiencelong-term hospitalization in the PICU & CCU. Hospital for Sick Children

Peer support for parents. Development of a parent peer support program. Hospital for Sick Children. [very happy to see this one and that I know all four of the practitioners on the list]

Taking care of those who care. Create an environment that provides coping resiliency for health care professionals, patients and parents at SickKids.
Hospital for Sick Children

Parental Presence during OR induction. A program that allows patients and the care-tiver to have/give support during induction in ALL surgeries. Hospital for Sick Children

Development of Palliative Care Unit. Transforming oncology / medicine unit of 30 beds by dividing unit into a medicine oncology unit and a palliative care unit.
Southlake Regional Health Centre

Family Centred Care (FCC) & Interprofessional Practice (IPP) Health Leadership Institute Evaluation Project. To evaluate through measurable outcomes, the impact of
participation in the HLI on advancing FCC & IPP. Hospital for Sick Children.

Implementation of a nurse led critical care response team (CCRT). Improved patient safety, quality, teamwork, and utilization of resources with a CCRT. Cambridge Memorial Hospital

I could go on listing exciting projects all day but I thinks these 14 items out of the 900 on the list convey what a useful document this is. This project database is also a great place to identify projects that need research championship; the keywords "error", "disclosure", "adverse event" do not produce any results although it is an important issue and the manner that disclosure happens and potential involvement of parents in error review is being researched.

Mount Sinai NICU invites Sickkids NICU parents to join buddy training

A butterfly claps its wings and wonderful doors open. Ina spoke to social worker Frida Ardal, one of two staff volunteers making the Mount Sinai parent buddy program work, and Frida has opened up 2 spots for Sickkids parents to join parent buddy program training at the end of April. This mentorship is a wonderful first step toward building a Sickkids NICU parent buddy program.

Parent Buddy Program, Mount Sinai Hospital

On Friday I connected with Ina Ornstein, a Mount Sinai Hospital NICU 'buddy' who is excited to share the program program with Sickkids Hospital NICU parents and staff. In 2004, Ina and her husband underwent multiple proceedures to help her struggling twin girls in utero and then experienced the death of one preemie at four weeks and the survival and wellness of the other. Ina shared features of the very successful program.

• Mount Sinai NICU Parent Buddy Program currently has about 100 buddies on call; approximately 20 new buddies go through a once a year orientation and it is estimated around 17 continue; about 10 of 15 active parents attend each NICU family advisory meeting
• hospital side buddy program work is done voluntarily by Marianne Bracht(RSV and transfer coordinator) and Frida Ardal (social worker)
• training binders have been prepared and there are buddy orientation and training days held on a weekend each year where experienced buddies discuss the buddy role; the role is seen as supporting parents as needed with a focus on helping parents advocate for open communication, staying away from specific medical advise and unreflective criticism of staff actions; the Buddy program is seen by staff as supporting hospital goals of 'open communication' as opposed to being seen as 'interference in care'; questionnaires show the program as being many parent's top pick as to impact and importance as a support role in the NICU
• the process is that the first nurse leaves a card explaining the program then the second person in (typically the lactation consultant) can ask if the parent had an opportunity to read the card; if a parent expresses an interest, Mariane and Frida can match the family with a buddy within 24 hours; it is the responsibility of the parent buddy to make first contact; after meeting the parents, most communication is by telephone and email; buddys are matched to similar child and family experiences and can be switched out if child/family situation changes considerably; parents can specialise, for example, Ina helps moms who have lost a twin and has helped 6 families and remains in contact with 3 of them
• Mount Sinai parents are advocating for a paid parent coordinator for the buddy program; Mount Sinai NICU will restart an NICU bereavement program with funding from the Linden Fund which specifically supports Canadian neonatal intensive care units; parents share concerns about communication and transfer from Mount Sinai to Sickkids
• Mount Sinai Hospital plans to build a new NICU for 2011 with more private family spaces and advisory parents are: supporting calls for at least 200 square feet in NICU for palliative children's beds; wishes to ensure strengthened parent involvement in the new NICU and are engaging the hospital to strengthen family centred care pillars like education, interservice collaboration, counselling, parent capacity building and support a family centred care centre
• despite the critical mass of parent buddies, successful yearly intake, and proven track record, buddy program parents feel the long term viability of the program is in question until there is structured support from the hospital or Foundation as the two vital staff volunteers will one day retire.

Resources:
Parent Resources at Mount Sinai Valentine Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Perinatal Parent Association: mission, history, what we do, signup
Parent Buddy Program introduction and sign up at Mount Sinai Hospital
Glossy version of the parent buddy program at Mount Sinai Hospital.
Study on the Mount Sinai buddy program finds it reduces stress for preemie mothers