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.
February 2021 Edition
Introductions
We'd like to introduce our new Alberta Children's Hospital (ACH) site leaders for Patient and Family Centred Care. Nadine Gall has moved from the Unit Manager role into the Patient Care Manager role and Trish Dubyk has joined the team as Unit Manager. Welcome!
Nadine Gall had recently moved into the Patient Care Manager role and will oversee the Family and Community Resource Centre, Patient and Family Centred Care, NDD Complex Care Coordination Program, Child Development, Child Abuse Services, and Clinical and Metabolic Genetics. Nadine's background is in Epidemiology - she has focused much of her work on advancing models of care for children and families with complex needs. She is a mother of four and lives in Canmore. Nadine is looking forward to working closely with our patients, families and staff to continue to embed PFCC principles in all we do. She is honoured to follow in Catherine's footsteps - figuratively and literally as she is hoping to join Catherine on some of her winter adventures! 
Trish Dybyk is the new Unit Manager for Family Community Resource Centre, Patient and Family Centred Care, Complex Care Initiative, Transition Service, NDD and Emily’s Backyard. Trish is a Registered Nurse and has worked in the ACH Emergency Department for over 10 years; as a Nurse Clinician and then the Unit Manager. She also completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Kinesiology, and was fortunate to play competitive hockey at the varsity level. Trish is a new mom of a 9 week old boy Connor, a Westie dog named Bodie, and if you haven’t noticed already, she is a huge Oilers fan – as heartbreaking as that can be! Trish is excited to join the team, and to collaborate with patients, families, and staff to champion the human factor of the healthcare journey!!  
Also supporting the work of Patient and Family Centred Care at ACH is practicum student Morgan Pelley.
Morgan Pelley is spending her final semester of her undergraduate degree completing a practicum with the Family and Community Resource Centre and Patient and Family Centred Care Team. Morgan was raised in Calgary and is studying Public Health at the University of Lethbridge. She has also completed a minor in French and Linguistics. Keeping her busy these days is learning how to snowboard! Morgan's contributions for her practicum include working on transitions projects, supporting the advisory councils, researching peer mentorship programs, and generally supporting the day to day activities of the team.
Commitment to Comfort Digital Stories
Three videos were created as part of the Alberta Children’s Hospital (ACH) Commitment to Comfort Pain Initiative told from the perspective of a young superhero patient, a dedicated pediatric health care provider and a parent working to help her child through a complicated health journey. These videos highlight effective ways to help reduce pain and distress associated with needle procedures and treatments. Check them out!
ACH NICU Introduces FiCare
The Alberta Family Integrated Care (FiCare) program was introduced to the Alberta Children’s Hospital NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) in November 2020 to complement the already family focused efforts of the NICU. Alberta FICare provides detailed strategies and practical tools to systematically drive culture change and enhance the great care already provided in the NICU.
 
Alberta FiCare encourages parents to be with their baby whenever they can, day or night. Parents are not visitors; they are consider to be the most important members of their baby’s care team and they are supported by the NICU healthcare provider team to learn about and participate in their baby’s daily care, as much as possible. Parents that are involved in their baby’s care benefit their baby’s health and development, feel less stressed and anxious, and have increased confidence to breastfeed and care for their baby in the NICU and at home.
 
The ACH NICU is focused on three main strategies to implement FiCare into their unit: completion of FiCare staff training modules including an understanding of relational communication strategies; a re-introduction of a systematic and standardized approach to parent education; and the encouragement of active parent participation in bedside rounds. 
Remembering Compassion
There's still a few decorated hearts hanging around the hospital - a reminder of our PFCC Week in 2017 when the theme was compassion. The hanging hearts are getting a bit tattered, much like how we feel after months of dealing with the Pandemic, but compassion is more important than ever.

Compassion is one of the core values of AHS - We show kindness and empathy for all in our care, and for each other.

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." Maya Angelou

Share your Story
Do you have a story you'd like to share for our newsletter? Perhaps a time you experienced compassion this past year at ACH or a new Patient and Family Centred Care initiative? We'd love to hear from you! Send us an email.