Congress Abstracts 2003

132

DEVELOPING AND IMPLEMENTING A FAMILY-CENTERED CARE PROGRAM IN AN ACUTE CARE ONCOLOGY UNIT. Kyla Dropkin, RN, BSN, MS-N, and Victoria Norton, BSN, OCN^®, Park Nicollet Health Services, St. Louis Park, MN.

Families and friends bring important support to their loved one’s healthcare experience. Encouraging a caring individual’s presence helps reassure, comfort, and heal a patient. For our 41-bed inpatient oncology unit at Park Nicollet Health Services, we wanted to formally offer families the opportunity to be directly involved in their loved one’s care.

Our voluntary program took the informal family involvement we already incorporated into patient care, gave permission to the caregiver to participate in care, and added formalized education and recognition. The patient would select a loved one who would assist with their physical, emotional, and spiritual support and their education. Staff would validate and support the level of care the caregiver wished to provide. Participants in this program varied from wanting to wear identification that they were a VIP (as we called them) to their loved one, to assisting with feeding, bathing, and ambulation.

Essential components of developing this program included nursing administration support, learning from other institutions using similar models, forming a unit committee including staff, developing processes specific to our unit, and educating all staff—nurses, nursing assistants, physicians, and other professionals in contact with our patients.

The success of this program comes from our commitment to establish a healthcare environment involving family collaboration and participation, and encouraging open communication between patients, families, and healthcare professionals. We recognize and support family strengths and individuality, while respecting different methods of coping and healing. The result is an atmosphere that respects the patient’s dignity and independence, and welcomes and honors racial, ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic diversity. Patient and family feedback has been positive and they have been more active members of the healthcare team.

Currently, we continue to adjust the program to fit our culture and patient and family needs. We plan to expand the family-centered care program to other inpatient units at this hospital, who have been eager for us to bring it to them.