Father's palliative parenting grief research poster

The poster for "Fathers' Experiences with Parenting & Grief: Unique Considerations in Caring and Research in Palliative Care" has been accepted at the Hospice Palliative Care Ontario 2012 conference.

Thanks to the skills and big hearts of Sickkids' Laura Beaune, Dr Maru Barrera, David Brownstone and Stanley Ing and Stollery's David Nicholas, Dr Mark Beletrutti and Mathew Milen for embracing the challenge of including a parent from SickKids Family Centered Care Advisory Council in the research.

Learning how a parent can participate in family centered care research has been an experience we also hope to document. This poster presents preliminary findings and emphasized a desire for peer support.

SickKids and social media: an interview with Janice Nicholson

In November, Ashley Weinhandl with the Ontario Hospital Association and health writer Colleen Young interviewed Janice Nicholson, Senior Manager of Strategic Communications at SickKids. Janice has taken on the exploration and launch of social media at SickKids over the last few years and here are a few snippets related to social media. See the full interview where Janice talks about  what channels the hospital chose and why and describes the Upopulis platform. In a nutshell, social media use at SickKids is about providing trusted and consistent information, receiving feedback and listening to the conversation.

Ashley: Tell us about your experience. What unique learnings have you encountered?

Janice: I’ve learned that it’s important to manage expectations about social media. It is not the solution to all of our communications challenges; it is simply another tool in our tool kit. I also have come to believe that to have a real effect in the social network, we need to have a coordinated approach. We have a strong brand and to maximize our voice and reach our audience on channels like Twitter, we need to maintain one brand. By having too many voices out there we end up splintering off into smaller channels. If we maintain master accounts, we can share the messages of all of our SickKids family through one voice and reach a wider audience. The key is to target those messages using keywords and hashtags. There is a lot of interest in embracing social media at SickKids, but we must manage expectations of who is using social media at SickKids and how they will represent our brand. We are taking a phased approach and now that we have taken the time to listen and are beginning to establish a voice, we are on to the next phase. We plan to continue to build as we start to engage our staff and stakeholders and help engage them in the conversation.
...
Ashley: What one piece of advice would you give other institutions for community building?

Janice:
Get involved with social media as fast as you can because if you’re not there they will still be talking about you. Being there allows you to know what is being said so you can respond accordingly. Since it’s free, it is a great tool for not-for-profit and publicly funded institutions. The important thing to remember is that you are entering a channel that moves at a crazy speed and you need to be extremely responsive. So while it is free to use, it requires resources and an investment of time and strategy. There are resources required and you have to take it seriously and have a plan.

FREE WEBINAR "Improving Patient Outcomes and Experience: How to Include the Patient and Family"

If you are interested in patient and family engagement in safety or other areas of health care, this looks like just the webinar and it is free registration.

Improving Patient Outcomes and Experience: How to Include the Patient and Family

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality tells patients that "The best way you can help to prevent errors is to be an active member of your health care team. That means taking part in every decision about your health care. Research shows that patients who are more involved with their care tend to get better results.” The Joint Commission encourages patients to be active participants through its SPEAK UP Campaign.

Unfortunately, the public mostly learns about patient safety through negative media stories. This thought-provoking presentation will teach you how it can be celebrated and how to encourage the patient's family takes some of the responsibility for safe care. Through storytelling and comparisons, Ms. Corina will leave you eager to include your patients and their families in patient safety.

But what exactly can the family do to be part of the team? How can they better understand their role in the patient's safety such as reducing falls, medication errors and hospital-acquired infections? Attend this webinar to learn how to communicate with families to make their presence work for you.

Participants will learn how to:

• Talk about patient safety with patients and their families to help ensure the best outcomes
• Teach patients’ guests about safety including falls, infections, medication safety, surgery safety and health literacy
• Reduce readmissions and injuries through clear, critical communication
• Get tips to develop a Patient Safety Advisory Council in your facility and learn how to choose the best representatives

Presenter

Ilene Corina, President and Founder of PULSE of New York

Selected as one of Modern Healthcare’s 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare of 2009 and a Fellow of the AHA’s Patient Safety Leadership Training, Ilene Corina is a nationally recognized advocate for patient safety. She is the president and founder of PULSE of New York, a grassroots patient safety advocacy group that was formed in 1997. She runs support groups for survivors of medical injuries and develops patient safety programs for medical professionals and consumers of healthcare.

Ms. Corina has appeared as a patient-safety expert on CNN, Fox News and other television and radio news shows, and is a popular lecturer and author. She discusses the patient’s role in patient safety and the changing culture to form partnerships to improve outcomes. She also helps healthcare professionals work with patients and their families after a medical injury or death has occurred, and has developed curriculum on disclosure of medical errors.

Ms. Corina is a board member of the Joint Commission and the National Patient Safety Foundation, and has won numerous awards, including the 2010 MITSS HOPE award, presented by RL Solutions.

Help patient and family centered care at SickKids

SickKids Children's Council and Family Centered Care Advisory Council and Families as Partners in Patient Safety seek patients and families and staff to work to advance SickKids patient and family centered care.

Family Education Day 2012 at SickKids is on April 1 - save the date

Strengthening Relationships in Child Health Care: Navigating, Advocating & Communicating

Draft agenda (to be confirmed in February)

9:00-9:15    Registration, coffee & socializing in the rotunda   

9:15-10:00     Welcome and opening keynote (to be announced)

10.00 - 12.00 Panels where possible co-facilitated by staff and parents

- Strengthening parent-provider relationships through stories of positive communication and successful partnership 

- Strengthening family resilience, Self Care and Sibling Support

- Strengthening child autonomy in their health care team relationships, transitions and the adolescent-adult transition

- Strengthening patient and family voice: preparing children and youth for proceedures and helping patients and families speak up

- Rights and Resources including financial benefits and credits and educational supports

12:00-1:00 Lunch and networking - tables include materials from FCCAC, hospital groups & relevant outside groups

1:00-2:00   Panel with staff and parents discussing collaboration and communication and strengthening relationships

Sessions will have written materials for participants and participants will be asked to fill out evaluation forms to improve next year's education day.

Marcel Panas new Family Centered Care Coordinator at Stollery Children's Hospital

Stollery NICU has added a wonderful NICU dad, bereaved dad and experienced family advisory member to their team to champion patient and family centered care. Family members hired by health facilities is a small, growing and important health care treasure to be celebrated. Congratulations Marcel, NICU and Stollery!

I am pleased to announce that Marcel Panas has accepted the part-time position of Family Centred Care Coordinator at the Stollery Children’s Hospital.

Marcel has been a very active family member on the Stollery Family Centred Care Network, serving as co-chair of the Family Centred Care Council and as a member of the NICU Family Advisory Care Team.  Marcel has worked at Bellamy Software for the past 13 years managing the development of software products.  He has a vast experience in project management, and leading teams of individuals in both his professional and volunteer roles.  He is currently working on a Bachelor of Health Administration degree.  Marcel brings with him a broad range of experience both professionally and as a father, and has a great passion in serving the children and families within the health care system.

Please join me in welcoming Marcel to this new role as we continue in our journey of becoming a centre of excellence reflecting the principles of Family Centred Care.

Sincerely,

Heather Mattson McCrady

Manager, Family Centred Care

Stollery Children’s Hospital

Read more from Marcel at the Panas family website.

Barbara Muskat appointed Clinical Director of Social Work at SickKids

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Barbara Muskat, PhD to the position of Clinical Director, Social Work reporting directly to me.

Barb is an accomplished leader and academic, having held numerous roles in child and family health including Director of Community Consultation at Integra, Toronto; Social Worker, Metropolitan Toronto Social Services; and most recently at SickKids as an Academic and Clinical Specialist with a focus on research.

Barb is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and is the recipient of a 2011 grant to support her research on the “Experiences of Parents of Paediatric Patients with ALL, Two Months After Completion of Treatment”. Additionally she received a 2010 New Investigators Grant from the National Grants Program from SickKids Foundation.

Barb has published extensively and brings a wealth of clinical social work skills to her broad research expertise.

Wishing her much success as she takes on the operational and academic responsibilities for the social work program at SickKids.

Please join me in welcoming Barb to her new role.

Regards,
Karen Karen Kinnear, RN BScN MBA
Executive Director, Clinical Labatt Family Heart Centre and Critical Care Services
The Hospital for Sick Children

In addition to all the achievements mentioned above, Barb is also the current staff co-chair of the Family Centered Care Advisory Council and so her appointment doubles up the support and the opportunity for SickKids patient and family-centered care research and practice.