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.

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Summer 2019 Edition
Save The Date!

The PFCC team along with youth, family and staff volunteers have already begun to plan for this year’s Patient and Family Centred Care (PFCC) week. It will be held Nov 4th to 8th.  

Our theme this year is "The Human Connection". We want to celebrate the value and importance of human connections at ACH as it is a vital part of the patient and staff experience.

We are planning many different activities where patients, families, volunteers, and healthcare providers can participate in during the week.

We will be post updates on the Patient and Family Centred Care week on our website and in future newsletters. Check back to stay up to date!
The PFCC team is always looking for helping hands – if you would like to help with PFCC Week please contact Juliana at achpfcc@ahs.ca or phone 403-955-2396.
“A connection (can be) the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgement; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.” Brene Brown
Safest Together Update
Safest Together is an initiative the Alberta Children’s Hospital (ACH) and the Stollery Children’s Hospital are working on to eliminate hospital acquired harm. This initiative is being undertaken as part of the Solutions for Patient Safety Network (SPS) project. 

Over the last year, ACH has been targeting four hospital acquired conditions – Central Line Associated Blood Infections (CLABSI), Pressure Injuries, Peripheral IV Infiltration & Extravasation (PIVIE) and Surgical Site Infections (SSI). These efforts include collecting and reporting data on each of the conditions, implementing additional SPS best practices, performing peer to peer audits, and completing a safety review of all reported incidents.  

This initiative also involves training all of our staff and physician in practices, which will help mitigate making safety errors. As of this month, over 1500 Staff and Physicians have completed the SafestTogether Error Prevention training course. The Error Prevention course is offered three days a week until the end of this year. If you haven’t taken this course yet, register through MyLearning Link.

To learn more about SafestTogether go to:
www.ahs.ca/SafestTogether (Patients & Families) or
insite.ahs.ca/SafestTogether (Staff & Physicians)
PFCC Summer Student
At the end of April 2019, we welcomed Ingrid Lane as a summer student to our Patient and Family Centred Care (PFCC) team. Ingrid will be with us until the end of August, when she will be returning to school for her final semester of her Bachelor of Nursing at Mount Royal University. Ingrid has been working on many different projects that include updating Advisor recruitment and onboarding resources, as well as, helping prepare for this year’s PFCC Week.

When asked about what she has learned from this experience, Ingrid indicated how her “eyes were opened to all of the behind the scenes efforts that go into creating the best experience possible for families at ACH. This includes learning about the important role of patient and family advisors, who partner with hospital healthcare providers to help improve the quality of care delivered to our hospital’s patients and families.” Ingrid looks forward to incorporating all this knowledge into her future nursing career. 
Engagement Tip
It is never too early to plan for the fall. If you are working on a project that would benefit from receiving input and feedback from youth and/or parents of patients of Alberta Children’s Hospital consider coming to our Family Advisory Council (FAC) and/or Child and Youth Advisory Council (CAYAC). Our PFCC team is here to assist you in how to plan a successful consultation that will allow you to achieve your engagement objectives while creating a meaningful engagement experience for our council members. 
Family Advisory Council (FAC)
Fall Council Dates:
Sept 17th, Oct 15th, and Nov 19th
from 7:00 to 9:00 pm
Child and Youth Advisory Council (CAYAC)
Fall Council Dates:
Sept 21st, Oct 26th, and Nov 30th from 10:30 to 3:30 pm
For more information contact us at achpfcc@ahs.ca or 403-955-7313.