PFCC - Newsletter

You can learn about Patient and Family Centred Care activities at Alberta Children's Hospital by reading our monthly e-newsletter - Together We're Better. This newsletter will give you insight into Family Centred Care Initiatives, profile our Family Centred Care champions, and keep you up to date on upcoming education opportunities. Archived copies are available on the FCRC website.

To receive the newsletter via email, please Join Our Mailing List.

January 2019 Edition Alberta Children's Hospital has recently adopted the practice of Leader Rounding - a systematic approach to connecting with patients and families in person, in real time at their point of care. This practice is part of the AHS Patient First Strategy, is supported by AHS Executive Leadership, and is a priority for the Calgary Zone Patient & Family Centred Care Committee.   Leaders from ACH will round on a regular basis with patients on a unit or clinic to connect and better understand the patient's overall experience and what is most important to them during their time in the hospital or during a clinic or other ambulatory encounter. The ACH Patient and Family Centred Care Team is supporting its roll out across the site. If you would like to learn more about Leader Rounding at ACH or would like to consider starting up Leader Rounding in your service area, please contact Juliana.harris@ahs.ca. Safest Together Update ACH has started to roll out Error Prevention training to all of its staff, both clinical and non-clinical. This training course teaches specific behaviors and tools that are proven to effectively prevent errors at all levels of care. It is one of many strategies that will be employed to reduce errors at the hospital. For further information and resources about the Safest Together initiative: ACH Staff Patients and Families If anyone has any questions, comments and/or feedback about this work, please email safest.together@ahs.ca. Preparing Researchers to Engage Patient and Family Partners At the Child Health Research Rounds on December 11th, 2018, Juliana Harris, PFCC Project Manager, Krystle Heikkinen, Family Partner, and Dr. Alicia Hilderley, Researcher, had the opportunity to present: "What can we do together? Partnering with patients and families" This presentation reviewed the multiple different ways patients and families can be engaged in research, the importance and value of engaging patients and families in research, and explored the different challenges in engaging patients and families as research partners, as well as, strategies to overcome them. After attending the session, Laurel Ryan, Clinical Research Manager, commented: "The presentation was a thoughtful unpacking of the process of starting to include patients and families on the research side of our work. Involving the end users, and seeing health challenges from their perspectives can't help but improve research by making sure we are spending time on research questions that are relevant to those who live with the disease. It was valuable to know about the formal ACH engagement channels that can be leveraged and how the PFCC team can be leveraged for consults to overcome issues."   Contact the PFCC Team to learn how to best engage patients and families in quality improvement or research projects at ACH. In the Spotlight... Marlo Shelvey, Practicum Student In September 2018, we welcomed Marlo Shelvey to our Patient and Family Centred Care (PFCC) team. She is a practicum student from University of Calgary's Community Rehabilitation and Disability Studies degree, and will continue her journey with us until the end of March.   "My practicum with the PFCC team has opened my eyes to all of the behind-the-scenes efforts that go in to crafting the best experience possible for families at ACH. It is vital to elevate the voices of the patients and families in order to truly center our care around their needs, and the PFCC team does a great job of ensuring these voices are heard. I have appreciated learning about what effective engagement looks like, and I am thankful for the opportunity I have had to make contributions towards a more patient and family centered environment here at ACH." Engagement Tip for Staff! The next time you embark on a quality improvement (QI) or research project, consider involving patients and/or families in one or more of the following ways: - Identifying QI project priorities or research topics/questions - Developing project outcomes and/or evaluation strategy - Participating in other aspects of project/research design - Identifying recruitment and/or retention of subjects/advisors - Participating in data collection - Analyzing data or reviewing results - Sharing project/research information Quote of the Month  Learning Opportunities Two sessions to consider from Children's Healthcare Canada (formerly CAPHC): January 30th, 9:00am, MT Improving Health System Navigation for Patients and Families: A Collective Community Impact Approach Register Now February 20th, 9:00am, MT Patients' Perceptions of Physician Wellness and Its Links to Patient Care: A Qualitative Study Register Now